A SEVERE RUN 99 



sent the foxes from their triumphant retreat over Mr. Higgins's 

 nightcap unceremoniously to the gi-ound. Mr. Dansey and 

 the hounds heard the holloa, and, one of the foxes hanging 

 by the quarters in some palings, on the pack coming up, he 

 was killed. After this a very funny caricature was published 

 by M'Lean in the Haymarket, which, for all I know, is extant 

 still, of an old gentleman looking out of a window in his night- 

 dress, with a vixen fox of quaint deportment immediately over 

 his head almost touching the tassel of his nightcap with her 

 brush, while the fat keeper underneath the window is told " that 

 his master is sure that he smells a fox." These foxes for years 

 had been in the habit of sleeping on the roof of the very man 

 who searched his fields and plantations for them all day. 



Throughout my second season in Bedfordshire foxes came, as 

 I said before, much oftener to hand, and I had a very good season 

 for sport. Still the Oakley Club would not allow that I did 

 anything well, and for ever some or other of its members, Jiot 

 all of them, were making light of the runs. One day, when 

 the country was very heavy, we fell in with one of the severest 

 runs in pace, continuance, and distance I ever saw in my life ; 

 changing foxes, running all over the Crossalbans country, and 

 leaving off near Chellington, in the direction of Bletsoe. The 

 effect of this run was that one of the gentlemen, who denied me 

 any sport or merit as a huntsman, though he was neither a good 

 nor a hard rider, killed his horse ; and, I am soiTy to say, one of 

 my whippers-in killed his also. This was a stopper to one 

 detracting mouth at least, but it also put into my stables a horse 

 belonging to a bootmaker and small farmer at Harrold, named 

 Allen, who eventually paid me well for the loss I had sustained. 

 This horse was poor and out of condition, and, my stable being 

 full, I had strongly recommended Mr. Magniac and other 

 gentlemen to buy him ; they, however, on one plea or other — 

 either that he was not handsome enough or had not action 

 enough — neglected to do so ; and the instant that the run was 

 over and my man's horse reported dead, I ordered old Pack, who 

 had lidden second horse for Mr. Lea Anthony, to jog on gently 



