1880-81.] DANCE AND DISASTER. 351 



However, Rej'iiard just })cat him to tlie first fence, and so 

 saved liis brusli handsomel}'. Tlie interference of the shep- 

 herd dog probably served him rather than liounds, for in the 

 next few fields he got farther ahead of them, and somewhere 

 soon he set a substitute going in his place. Except as affect- 

 ing the chances of a kill, previously so imminent, the latter 

 answered all purposes, for he set his head straight across the 

 open, and led them smartly onwards by Berry Gorse and across 

 the valley to the left of Stapleford. Not the worst of the run 

 was the part that embraced the broad grass fields uj) to the 

 railway. Hounds then crossed the line for a brief while, 

 turned alongside it again to the right to Saxby Station, and 

 were next carried on to a holloa towards the village of Freeb}'. 

 Thus, starting in the Quorn country, they now left the Cottes- 

 more, to embark iipon that of the Belvoir. But the best of 

 the sport was already over, though pursuit was prosecuted for 

 a long time to come, till Newman's Gorse and Freeby Wood 

 had been run through, and hounds at length bnyed over 

 the earth in the former covert. This Avas about two hours 

 after the first crash fi-om Gartree Hill, the initial half-hour 

 being the cream of the run, and that being about the tether 

 of two-thirds of the horses as far as jileasant riding was 

 concerned. 



DANCE AND DISASTER. 



Till an hour almost beyond the term "small," in the 

 morning of Friday, Feb. 11, the Shire in question joined 

 hands with its sister of Northampton, to bring off the annual 

 United Counties Bait at Market Harboro'. The two then, 

 having danced their fill, and snatched their forty winks, set 

 out together to meet the Pytchley at Oxendon, smoothing 

 their countenances as if neither schottische nor champagne 

 had had aught to do with the night before. To describe a 

 ball is not the province of a hunting correspondent. The 



