226 THE CREAM OF LEICESTEESHIRE. [Season 



gravel solves this difficult}'. An earl}' casualty has stopped 

 one of the best (and alwaj's one of the foremost) of riders. His 

 horse flew two fences at a corner in preference to one, landed 

 into a third, a barricade of high timber, and was, I believe, com- 

 pletely entrapped. "With hounds just settled to run hard, a 

 shepherd dog has anticipated them ; but the lost second puts 

 those who meant to ride with the other fox once more on fair 

 terms : and all start forward again together. There are nice 

 fields and nice fences up to lloby village and past the right of 

 it. The range of alarming oxers Ave were wont to associate 

 with the manor would seem to have disappeared ; and there is 

 nothing j-et to hinder or friglitcn as the chase proceeds on its 

 even way. Never very fast, but always going ; and always fiist 

 enough if for a moment you get left behind. Another' mile 

 or so, and suddenly the field pauses where a deep thorn- 

 covered chasm bisects a valley. Scrutiny does not better' 

 its forbidding aspect; so even " Ashb}' ," Mr. J. Tomkin- 

 son's famous roarer, is reluctantly denied a trial, and 

 with mortification on his owner's countenance taken right or 

 left to ford or bridge. And it wasn't a very big place after all ! 

 But we don't like " chancing " these blind wide bottoms — at 

 least when we've been swallowed a few times, or seen the back 

 of more than one good horse broken in the attempt. The next 

 valley has also its watercourse ; but it is to be done either by 

 pushing through the tangled bullfinch and doubling over with 

 a second effort, or — much more pleasantl}' — by using the good 

 bridge that ofiers itself not a hundred yards away. And so in 

 lldrty minutes hounds enter Cossington Gorse. With a burn- 

 ing scent they might have got there in twenty-five, or even a 

 minute or two less. But they reached it now with men and 

 horses steaming, and everyone speaking well of the fun they 

 had seen. The rest of the story of the day maybe summed xv^ 

 as follows : There were a brace of foxes in the covert ; and the 

 run one (draggled and dirty) soon broke again over the road. 

 Over part of the same course they ran him back ; then they 

 had suddenly two lines in front of them. Pursuing on, they 



