BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



in Brafleld Furze on Mr. Christopher Smythe's property : 

 ran perfectly straight for 8 miles : turned left-handed and 

 killed after another 50 minutes' fast hunting. Every hound 

 up. 



lUh December 1894. — The Quorn, Barkby Holt Run. 

 Found in Barkby Holt : 27 miles in 2 hours 5 minutes to ground 

 in Bolt Wood. Grass all the way : very fast : horses stopping 

 in every field. 



2nd January 1899. — The Craven Sydmonton Run. Found 

 in Sydmonton Big Wood. Hounds stopped at Tubbs Copse 

 near Bramley Station. 10 miles point to point : 20 miles as 

 hounds ran. First ten miles so fast nobody could get near 

 hounds. 



27th March 1903.— The Quorn Barkby Holt Run. 12 miles 

 to just short of Oakham Pastures. Killed. 



It is the exception rather than the rule for one of these 

 long runs to end with a kill. The fact that six out of the 

 eleven occurred in February will be remarked. 



These are some of the strange places wherein foxes have 

 been killed or left : — On the housekeeper's bed upstairs, 

 Catas Farm, near Heather, Leicestershire : late in October or 

 early November 1864 (clubbed while asleep by a waggoner). 

 Kitchen of a builder at Wetherby, Bramham Moor killed 

 31st May 1875. In Mr. Fernie's country : took refuge beside 

 a ploughman and his team, November 1899. Killed in 

 Broughton Astley Church, near Leicester, while congregation 

 assembling, Friday, 12th August 1900. Down farmhouse 

 chimney from the roof : fire raked out, and left by Essex 

 and Suffolk, 26th December 1903. Mineral water factory : 

 employes usurped function of hounds and lost : Atherstone, 

 March 1904. 



The height from which a fox can drop without hurting 

 himself is very extraordinary. Foxes often seek refuge in 

 trees,^ and if disturbed drop to ground without hesitation. 



' This trait seems to be of modern development. I have found no mention of tree- 

 climbing foxes in the records of a century back. 



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