322 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Seasox 



foxhunters enthusiasts ? And if to be so is a reproach, then 

 we own to glory in our shame. 



Eighteen minutes was not all the run ; but it was the best 

 and quickest part of it, and no halt or hesitation came till then. 

 The course had been over Ranksboro' Hill, and curved towards 

 Somerby along a goodly line, till it pierced the plantation bor- 

 dering the Somerby and Cold Overton Road. The military 

 and ex-military element (who form a large proportion of 

 Leicestershhe's Hunt and hardriding societj^) were fully to the 

 front, in the persons of Captains Cand}', Smith, and ]Mr. H. 

 Brockkhurst, who, with ]\Ir. Beaumont, had been, perliaps, 

 the leading spirits. After this point hounds ran nicely nearly 

 to Orton Park "NV'ood. But well as they go while close at their 

 fox it was not a day to kill him ; and as soon as slow hunting 

 began, scent seemed to fail and quickly die out. Yet it was 

 truly a fine, and a hard, day's sport. 



MARCH SUN AND SCENT. 



Thursday, March 18. — A sunm' gallop with the Quorn, and 

 half an hour to tell it. A b3'e-day had been ordered for 

 Barkby ; and had been quietly kei)t for a true Quorn field. 

 The wind was in the east ; the sun had the whole heaven to 

 himself; the fallows were dr}^ as piecrust; and, in short, to go 

 a-hunting to-day seemed about as fitting an experiment as that 

 of Ingoldsby's children who " went a-skating, all on a summer's 

 day." 



But a seven or eight minutes' preface from Scraptoft Gorse 

 showed the remarkable phenomenon of hounds going their 

 hardest through the cloud of dust raised by their passage over 

 a, wheatfield ; and gave a hope, an instinct, of the coming fray. 

 Now the}-^ are away again from Scraptoft Gorse — this time 

 nearly up the wind, and Avith a point for Keyliam. All the field 

 has been mustered at the Thurnby end of the covert ; and the 

 scream Away is dimly heard. You may glance at your watch, 



