72 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



from the distance post. " Stir liis courage with the steel ! " 

 as Sir Walter has it ; " Sting him to jubilance ! " as Mr. Myers 

 puts it; "Gash him well in the last two strides," as Bob 

 Chapman expresses it ; with a mighty heave get his quarters 

 well underneath him, and you are bound to go somewhere into 

 the next field — though a scuffle and a scramble leave a long 

 doubt of the success of your entry. A couple of rustics are 

 delightedly pointing out one of the widest spots as each fresh 

 comer looks eagerly for a guiding signal, which after all is 

 meant, like the wrecker's beacon, onlj' for his destruction. 

 One by one half-a-dozen horsemen come down at the tilt, some 

 to fall, all to scramble ; and already the chase is far over the 

 liill. Lutterworth steeple is a landmark right in fi'ont, and the 

 hounds are apparently racing for it, when, within two fields of 

 it, they dive into a gravel pit, where many a cub has grown up 

 under the fostering shadow of Wj^cliffe's temple. The earths 

 are stopped ; but their good fox has found just time enough 

 to see the door is closed against him, and to scale the bank 

 before they enter. As he crosses the poor-allotments above he 

 has exchanged signals with another of his race, who probably 

 found himself blocked out over-night ; and, starting him 

 forward with the fear of the pack close following at his heels, 

 himself has dragged his wearied limbs in an opposite 

 direction. 



The run was over now ; for naturally enough the pack went 

 on with the forward line. But the scent had changed ; and 

 the present fugitive, when they got up to him at Misterton, 

 was found to be a very unworth}' substitute for the good animal 

 that furnished this delightful forty minutes. 



Friday, December 6th, treated them well in the matter of 

 scent. From Twelveacres hounds got away on the best of 

 terms, and were able to grapple to their work at once. It's 

 heart-breaking galloping over a plough, but you must do it at 

 a start if you hope to see what goes on. The only alternative 

 now is to macadamise with an eye to Newnham ; but you had 

 better take your cropper over that hairy stake-and-bound, or 



