58 THE CPtEAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



a higli-class thoroughbred. Nottingham law and Nottingham 

 sport had likewise a delegate ; while the Quorn Hmit could 

 only furnish two or three coats of monkish hue to complete 

 the scant}- attendance. 



Willoughby Gorse this year is a certainty. The present 

 Quorn pack seemed to know this by instinct, for thej^ spread 

 themselves in covert hke Clumbers, and straightway shook the 

 moisture off the thorns from end to end. Two foxes on the 

 move immediatel}' ; one crosses over the ride, and the other 

 breaks away back in view of the least musical of the eight 

 shivering sportsmen. He trusts to his hat rather than his 

 throat, waves it round his head with double windmill vigour, 

 and at length succeeds in getting Mr. Sandy's lungs and the 

 master's hoi-n under way. Macbride is busy up wind with the 

 varmint in covert, but soon catches the cue, and with pack 

 and bugle flies quickly to the rescue. Over the road towards 

 Ellars' Gorse, every hound in his place, and every hound 

 laughing noisily at the weather. With a sparkle and freshness 

 that spreads itself to their followers, they dash over the gi'ass 

 for half a dozen fields with a clear start, then turn to the 

 right, and the latter get on even teinns again as thej^ bear up 

 for Wimeswold. A tenant, courteous but cunning, puts five- 

 eighths of the riders aside from his wheat, and wide of the 

 hounds, by bidding them vociferously to go for an imagmary 

 gap into the meadow on the right, and the}^ have to push and 

 pump to recover their ground. For a quarter of an hour they 

 are pegging along, alternateh' choosing the highest ridges and 

 the wettest furrows, and for ten minutes more they are wadmg 

 girth-deep among the wheat growth. Sorry for you, sir, that 

 gate's locked, and j-ou have to knee the stile. Macbride has 

 both spurs driving home, and clears it at a bound ; but at the 

 one be3'ond is momentarily swaj'ing on it, like the to}^ horse- 

 man with the leaden balance that gave us our first notion of 

 proportionate equihbrium. Cortlingstock Village is just in 

 front, and unfortunately its sporting proclivities were roused 

 into life last week by Mr. Musters's foray over the country. 



