SPORT AT LAST 311 



axis, but that a fanner met him and bore him down again 

 into the vale, and the chase went on dehghtfully over this 

 pattern country. Just short of Yelvertoft village the turn 

 came ; hounds swung to the left, and in a strongly-fenced 

 corner we seemed likely to be pounded. But the strong 

 ox-rail beyond the edge had no terrors for Lord South- 

 ampton, who — riding, I fancy, the chestnut horse he calls 

 Coolmore — made light of it at once, and also of the strong 

 timber in the fence immediately beyond. As he reached 

 the Yelvertoft road he found the place of vantage already 

 secured by Mr. Fenwick, whose knowledge of the country 

 and its foxes had kept him inside of the turn. 



Beyond the road another oxer went crack in several 

 places, as the left contingent landed into a meadow from 

 which there was apparently no escape. The hamlet of 

 Claycoton was just below ; and the village carpenter had 

 put up not only some very captivating rails, but the very 

 unnecessary addition of a strand of barbed wire. " Your 

 wire-nippers, for Heaven's sake ! " bawled the imprisoned 

 ones to their comrades in the road alongside. At that 

 moment exit was found possible by a side fence, and a 

 hundred yards' detour let out the captives, while Goodall 

 galloped on for Hemplow with the flying pack, and Lord 

 Southampton fell harmlessly on landing over an immense 

 chasm beside the village. 



Rising the hill, the old quotation rose involuntarily to 

 one's lips, as the chase was seen to be headed, as it has 

 so often been headed before, by our honoured veteran, 

 Mr. Trueman Mills : — 



" First in the van was the old grey man, 

 Who rode on the old grey mare " 



Another well-known boundary fence, that of the Stan- 

 ford Hall estate, confronted them as they rose the brow. 

 Mr. T. Jameson's Irish practice came in useful here, and 

 the hunt swept on over these wide pastures ; the bitches 

 running to kill, and Goodall as happy as a schoolboy. A 

 boy again I thought Mr. W. Hipwell, in whose company 

 I have ridden since boyhood's days, and who now was 

 leading his field over one wide-set oxer after another. 



