84 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



Col. Forester, who, on a whistler belonging to Lord Wilton, 

 cut down first four tremendous oak rails (and posts), and then aU 

 his followers. (It strikes me that, if the gallant colonel con- 

 tinues thus frequentl}^ to distinguish himself, I shall lay mj^self 

 open to the charge of making too free use of his name.) From 

 Gaddesby along the trying line to, and beyond, Thoi^pe Sateh- 

 ville, he took almost every fence first, and that he had decidedly 

 the best of the run is an assertion at which no one will be 

 found to cavil. One hy one horses were seen to labour and 

 falter ; one by one they rolled feebly through their fences — 

 the freest and truest jumper soon pulling up on the brink of 

 each to make his efi'oi-t from a stand ; and one straggler after 

 another dropped oflf to trot along the adjacent road, which 

 happily could lend its aid to the end. The string of coverts 

 which it skirts (Cream Gorse, Ashb}' Pastures, and Thorpe 

 Trussells) were all left a few fields awaj-. A stifling hill just 

 opposite Ashby Pastures was the stopping point of many of 

 the present remnant of the field ; and it was almost pitiful to 

 see the hard struggle that the small gap on its summit caused 

 every steed in turn. But the master, with Tom Firr, Col. 

 Forester, Capt. Smith, Messrs. Pryor and Chaplin, and Major 

 Paynter (all but the first-named, curiously enough, riding chest- 

 nuts), toiled on still; and though others nicked in afterwards 

 at various points (Thorpe Village, Adam's Gorse, &c.), these 

 were all who lived with the hounds throughout. Fiffcj' minutes 

 saw the first real check above the Melton steeplechase course, 

 opposite Burrough Hill. A flock of sheep had foiled the line as 

 the fox (just before them) made a short turn ; and though the 

 huntsmen tried hard to pick him up, and hit upon his track 

 under two or three hedgerows below the grand stand, he 

 managed to crawl away in safety. 



On the next day, too (Saturday, Jan. 11), the Quorn further 

 followed up their successes by a first-rate fifty minutes in their 

 forest country, again killhig their fox in the open. 



But for pace and straightness we have as yet had nothing to 

 compare with the gallop of the Cottesmore on the last-named 



