148 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



right ill the path of the fox. May their Arch-enemy soon 

 beguile them to emigration for that they spoilt the most assm-ed 

 gallop for which we ever essayed a start. 



Now we have to speak more fully of the afternoon run, the 

 best part of a truly rich day. Five minutes waiting at Thorpe 

 Trussels ended in a holloa-away at two opposite corners. 

 " This is the best countiy, George, yell away for bare life ! " 

 But Firr's horn is heard at the same moment at the other end, 

 showing his attention was to be devoted in that direction, 

 and necessitating the speaker's scurrying round at best pace 

 to avoid being left behind. The pack broke over the road 

 towards Asliby ; wliile some forty good ** customers " jumped 

 down with them into the dingle beyond, and made the best of 

 their wa}' through the ridge of plough that, bounds the wide 

 grass tract below. When hounds do run quick over plough 

 they can always distance horses ; and so while these two fields 

 were being crossed they gained time and room enough to settle 

 to their work. A struggle through fallow is hardly good pre- 

 paration for a hog-backed stile with a downhill approach. But 

 this was what met them — a trying necessity — almost imme- 

 diately they landed on the grass. An elastic rail must the top 

 one have been, for some tweiit}^ pairs of shins and hoofs rattled 

 and bent it, yet I believe it remains still unbroken. The fence 

 below — running down from Thoi'pe Hall — was stiU more 

 formidable ; for it was made up of a black thick-entwined bull- 

 finch, with a wide ditch open to the aiiproaching negotiator. 

 Eefusals resulting from two other attempts on either side 

 allowed Lord Clarendon to take a lead up the opposite hill, and 

 to be one of the first to swing over the wide bottom that divides 

 the parishes of Asliby and Thorpe Satchville. A good fifteen 

 feet fiy is the lowest estimate we can form of it ; but this did 

 not deter Mrs. Molyneux from accepting her husband's lead 

 with the same cool confidence she displayed throughout the 

 run. Indeed, putting quite aside the natural inclination to do 

 justice to ladies' feats (wliicli naturally strike one before those 

 of the rougher sex), it is impossible to deny a sense of local 



