74 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE, [Season 



THE LAST RUN OF 1872 WITH THE 

 COTTESMORE. 



Saturday, December 28tli, is more worth telling about, 

 can I but tell it properl3^ The Cottesmore met at Leesthorpe, 

 so said those who breakfasted at a proper limiting horn", which, 

 as the meet was close at hand, few from Melton did. To see 

 the Punchbowl stirred, though, there was such a gathering of 

 good men round its upper rim as even this famous resort has 

 seldom witnessed. Lord Lonsdale had brought an unusually 

 strong force into the field ; the Duke of Rutland had spared 

 many a stcnit adherent to represent him here ; Mr. Tailby 

 headed his champions ; Mr. Coupland led. forth the Quornites 

 to a man. No wonder there was such an eager rush, when the 

 hounds were laid on along the crest of the hill, that at first 

 they could make no head on the line. Nor was it till the field 

 were clustered on the eminence overhanging the Steeplechase 

 course that, looking down, they discovered two hounds stealing 

 on Avith the scent. The body of the pack were carried on to 

 join them, which they did as they gained the high ground to 

 the left of Burrougii village, and here the run began. 



They got together and slipped away at once over the road 

 and down into the valley beyond — so quickly and suddenly 

 that only the huntsman. Sir Frederick Johnstone, Col. Fores- 

 ter, and one or two others knew the}' were away till they 

 had a start of a couple of fields of plough. Deep plough is 

 scarcely ground on which to make up lost time, more esi)ecially 

 when, as now, each foot-lifting is a labour ; nor did narrow 

 crowded gateways and a fifty-acre piece of ridge-and-furrow (so 

 guiltless of drainage that both landlord and tenant must be bank- 

 rupt, or at the least deserve to be) facilitate the task of catch- 

 ing them as they flew along the vale. Had they raced on, the 

 quicker few never would have been caught ; but the hesitation 

 of a second or two lets uj) some twenty more, and then the pace 

 grows hot again as they round Burrough, the village on their 



