212 HISTORY OF THE YORK AND A IN STY HUNT. 



cub-hunting operations. The weather during the opening 

 weeks was wet and stormy, but nevertheless hounds showed 

 good sport, and accounted well for their foxes. September, 

 taken on the whole, was a good month after a start was 

 once made, and all through October hounds did well, and 

 brought a fair lot of foxes to hand. On October 22nd they 

 had a good day at Thicket Priory. The country was in a 

 dreadful state, the ground up to the hocks, and the Derwent 

 had overflowed its banks to such an extent that it looked 

 like an inland sea of some seven or eight miles in length 

 and from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and a quarter 

 in breadth. There was just a holding scent, the wet state 

 of the ground causing some trouble. Nevertheless hounds 

 hunted with great steadiness, and stuck well to their work, 

 killing their first fox after thirty minutes' very pretty hunting. 

 There was a good show of foxes, and a lot of slow hunting 

 afterwards, but the country was so blind and deep that the 

 pace was quite fast enough. 



There was frost as well as wet weather to contend with 

 during the cub-hunting season, and on the 25th the pools of 

 water on the roads were a mass of ice, and there was a strong 

 suspicion that the keen north wind was bringing snow with 

 it. Hounds could hunt, however, and they had a fair day's 

 sport, eight minutes at top pace from Rufforth Whin (after 

 seventeen minutes' hard running in covert), to ground at 

 Hessay, putting everyone in good humour with the prospects 

 of the season. The cub-hunting season was brought to a 

 close brilliantly on Monday, October 31st, when they met at 

 Strensall. They found in the Oak Wood and ran with a 

 burnine scent over the grass to Strensall village. Here 

 they made a sharp turn to the right, and leaving Oak Wood 

 on the right, they ran over a big country to Suet Carr. 

 That grief was plentiful over such a country so early in the 

 season it is needless to say, and many a good man was 



