270 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Skasok 



retui'ned to find we had done nothing so very mad ; brought 

 hack " a sound mmd in a sound body," consider that both are 

 all the better for it, and look forward to repeating the process 

 very shortly. Know, then, that we took our start from the 

 Quorn country, where the snowfall has been scantier; and 

 such Arctic fashion of fox-hunting would (except round 

 Lowseby, Billesdon Coplow, Quenby and Baggrave) be im- 

 practicable. But, as we issued from the plain on to the 

 heights of Cold Newton, the lanes had been choked with 

 snowdrifts, now cut through to leave a three-feet wall on either 

 side; while every field was covered to a depth of several inches. 

 Already, too, a happy omen had shed a radiance across our 

 patli and over our spirits. ' In the middle of an open field, 

 whom should we meet but Bold Reynard himself, sauntering 

 leisurel}^ along in the daylight, fully convinced that hunting 

 was a dormant or a dead pursuit. The sight of three horse- 

 men booted and spurred was a sharp shock to his misguided 

 mind ; and the familiar view holloa sent him scurrying off to 

 wonder and soliloquy in the security of the gorse hard hy. 



At one o'clock punctuality was rewarded by the sight of 

 hounds just breaking up their fox in Vowes' (xorse — the 

 second they have been unfortunate enough to chop in this 

 covert during the last ten days. And round or near the pack 

 stood — not half-a-dozen wild enthusiasts as we had expected, 

 but a field of fifty I Indeed, half the Hunt were there ; and 

 had already acquired the confidence begotten of previous suc- 

 cessful experiment. The following were some among them — 

 Sir Bache and the Misses Cunard, Mrs. Arthur, Mr. and Miss 

 Braithwaite, Miss Studd, Lord JNIanners, Colonel and Messrs. 

 F. and H. Gosling, Captains J. Baillie, Pennington, and 

 Goodchild, Messrs. Duncan, Lloyd, Douglass, Simpson, Ark- 

 wright, Allcard, Crane, Coleman, Foster, &c. ; while Neal, 

 the huntsman of the Cottesmore, was in attendance to study a 

 new branch of the art. The Hunt servants were in full ortho- 

 doxy of colour and costume. For the others, covert-coats, 

 woollen-gloves, and in some cases comforters, were the pre- 



