78 HUNTING TOURS. 



When huntino^ the Market Harborough 

 side of the country, the Squire and his 

 men, Tom Sebright and Will Head, who 

 was afterwards huntsman to the Cheshire, 

 had a sharp scrimmage with the natives. 

 The hounds ran a fox to ground in what 

 appeared to be a rabbit hole in a covert 

 near a village, full of idle vagabonds, who 

 congregated on the earth, as they are wont 

 to do, in large numbers. The fox was 

 bolted, and the hounds soon tasted him. 

 Whilst this was going on. Head, with the 

 terrier, remained at the earth, and supposing 

 there was some reason for it, Mr. Osbaldeston 

 returned to him, There was a badger in the 

 earth, and the roughs, about twenty in num- 

 ber, with the help of the terrier, got him 

 out, and they had him in a sack. He was 

 clearly not their game ; they had already 

 received half-a-sovereign for their trouble, 

 but they w-ould not give him up. Sebright 

 w^ent to them on foot to remonstrate, wdien 

 one of them knocked him down. He 

 was ordered to mount, when the master 

 and whips charged the mob in line, and 

 floored several. The fellow with the badger 

 in the sack bolted into the gorse, the Squire 



