152 HISTORY OF THE BRAMHAM MOOR HUNT. 



' thorpe Woods. Away to the village, pointed for Ingman- 

 ' thorpe, left the Willow Garth on the right, back past 

 * Cowthorpe Wood, crossed the river and back again, 

 ' chased him into the river again, and killed him in the 

 ' middle. Thirty-five minutes. P"ound in Lingcroft. Away 

 'through the Willow Garth, over the York road, left 

 ' Bickerton Spring on the left, passed Bilton Grange to 

 ' Tockwith and nearly to Wilstrop. Here a long check. 

 ' Hit him up to Marston Whin, came up to him, got him 

 ' away fast to Wilstrop, down to the river, turned to the 

 ' left, ran the bank of the river past Skewkirk Bridge, back 

 ' past Tockwith and to Marston Whin, killing him in 

 ' covert. Two hours twenty-five minutes. Killed at 5-25. 

 ' Hard day.' 



Smith, in his record of this good day's sport, relates that 

 he took out twenty-one and a half couples of hounds, and 

 that every hound was up at the finish, which speaks volumes 

 for their condition. There was a good deal of broken 

 weather in February, and though hounds were not stopped 

 much, sport was considerably affected. March, too, was wild 

 and dry, and before the end of the month the fallows were 

 so hard that hunting was certainly carried on under difficulties. 

 They had one very good day in the middle of the month, 

 when they met at the Spacey Houses. They found their 

 first fox in Beckwithshaw bottoms, and after hunting him an 

 hour, they lost him near Pannal. The weather was wretched 

 — 'high wind, and dust flying,' says Mr. Fox in his diary — 

 but for all that they had a good and satisfactory hunt with 

 their second, or rather with their third ; for they found a 

 vixen in Walton Wood, which, of course, they left. .Spacey 

 House Whin provided the run. Thence they ran to Rudding 

 Park, past the Cocked Hat to Kirkby Overblow wall, where 

 the fox was headed back past Clap Wood. But he made 

 his point after all, and they ran him down the hill towards the 

 Punch Bowl, and down to the river. Here they had a long 



