210 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



Where'er we tread 'tis haunted holy gi-ound ; 

 No earth of thine is lost in viilgar mould, 

 The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon, 

 Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold. 



Two p.m., and so much of the day spent in little scmTies, 

 which in themselves had neither extent nor interest, till at 

 length they culminated in the burst that is to be my topic. 

 But as the preceding combats on the Douro always hold place 

 in story as leading up to the greater Salamanca, so it is neces- 

 sary to touch on the brief skirmishes on the valley of the 

 Whissendine, which immediately foreran the event in question. 

 If the day was half exhausted, the bright sunshine (of which 

 this November has been as prolific as it has of sport) was 

 wholly so, when the hunt was set going in Laxton's Covert. 

 Away at the lower end, where the sluggish Whissendine takes 

 its course, now running between firm and grass}'' banks, and a 

 hundred yards higher or lower creeping, half-choked in sedge, 

 betwixt boundaries uncertain and deceptive. Hounds crossed 

 it where it was a fair and easy jump, though to the credit of 

 the half-dozen men who took it in their stride, and still more 

 to that of the one lady (Mrs. C. Chaplin) who fiew it with 

 them — none could say it was so, till arrived at its brink. The 

 bridge, too, was close by ; the road was crossed, and a large 

 part}'' cut the fences in pieces till a mile brought them to a little 

 spinney on a second and more difficult brook, the Eye. Sir 

 John Lister- Kaye, Mr. Grey, Captain Jacobson, and, I think, 

 Captain Candy were promptly over it ; but, finding they had 

 somewhat anticipated matters, found themselves in the pre- 

 dicament of having to jump it back again, their retreat 

 not being accomplished without the loss of half their party. 

 Two foxes being afoot at this period, one of them ran the 

 gauntlet back to Stapleford, hounds chasing merril}^ and 

 the crowd behind crashing heartily in their tracks. Then 

 there was a furious ring round the great park — hounds on 

 the inside, horsemen, almost without exception, taking the 

 wider circle of the outside. Now the}' were back in Laxton's 



