360 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



give. A bold 3^outh of the party then charged rail and old 

 man together — kneed the one, and frightened the other out of 

 his few remaining senses, lit on liis horse's head as that touched 

 the ground, and, after half a minute's picturesque struggling, 

 resumed his seat again. One other followed his lead with 

 equal success, but with some less poetry of action ; and Pro- 

 vidence then directed the failuig hearts of the others to a gated 

 sheep-pen in the adjacent corner. Meanwhile the gi'ey and 

 the hounds had crossed the brook by a ford, reached Queniboro' 

 Spinney, and were moving on for South Croxton, when at 

 length huntsman and field reached them — some twenty-five 

 minutes from the find. 



Now the pace was slackening — as pace always does slacken 

 after the first burst (in all but most exceptional instances) — 

 proving one of two things : either that a fox goes much faster 

 than hounds, or that the scent of a fresh fox is much stronger 

 than that of one that has stood some time before hounds. 

 Putting aside the difficulties that a beaten fox creates by 

 doubling and turning, what is the explanation, men of know- 

 ledge and experience ? For you will scarcely gainsay me in 

 the assertion that the heat of a chase is in its earlier stage, and 

 scent more often languishes than freshens as pm'suit goes on. 



But of the Quorn fox — or foxes — on the occasion in point. 

 They ran him up to where a drunkard in a smock frock was 

 cooHng head and heels on a stile in preference to drinking his 

 time and earnings completely out in the public of South 

 Croxton adjoinmg (fact, not figure, this). Drunkard of course 

 had interfered with the fox ; but the latter had still gone on, 

 and had been seen along the Tilton road. Unfortunately, 

 before his line could be recovered a new fox was among the 

 rearmost horsemen, and shriek and scream and j^ell insisted 

 on the huntsman's return. Very loth he at length assented, 

 with the consequence that a new edition of a run was created, 

 which wasted itself at length in a return journey by Barsby, 

 and to no definite end. A holloa on a sinking fox is often a 

 halleluia in the ears of a huntsman ; but holloas, ninety-nine 



