1881—82.] GRASS AND WATER. 381 



the Coplow Hill. But to holloa and horn they were soon over 

 the crest and away for the wilds. The dips and rises that 

 come, like a chopping sea, hy Tondin's Spinney and thence in 

 the Tilton direction are more fit for mountain mules than for 

 lengthy Leicestershire horses, though I fancy the mule would 

 turn stubhorn, had he to face the blackthorn fences as well as 

 to climb the steep grass ridges. I need make no long story of 

 this run. It was in the main a pleasant, galloping half hour — 

 a plough-team and its fresh-turned soil giving five minutes' 

 breathing time en route. Still, a fox that will go at once from 

 the Coplow to ground in the Tilton Highlands deserves credit, 

 and gives hope for a futm-e day. And before reaching the 

 Cottesmore Woods, tliere were ten very good minutes over big 

 grass fields, and fences that, while looking rather formidable, 

 everyone could juni}) — and everybody did jump in safety and 

 pride. (What more do you want for a field, each member of 

 which is bent on taking a part, for his own fun and accordino- 

 to his self-measurement '?) By Skeffington Wood and Tilton 

 Wood — to ground in the earths below the latter — the run over, 

 thirty-five minutes registered, and horses and men alike giving 

 perspiring evidence of the closeness of the day and the severity 

 of the ground — and this on the very spot where they were 

 shivering so bitterly three days before. 



Moving back into Quorn territory through Tilton, Lord 

 Moreton's covert became the next point of appeal. A small 

 gorse covert on a spur, overlooking the wet and narrow orass 

 vale that runs from John o' Gaunt to the Coplow — and alon<T 

 which, alas, a railway now nms too. The field were posted up 

 aloft ; the huntsman worked his way round the spur ; and the 

 field gi-adually went to sleep. Huntsman and hounds had dis- 

 appeared beyond the spur, and covert was supposed to be 

 blank. Some minutes had elapsed, when a plough-boy below 

 was heard to observe casually (by no means addressing himself 

 to the expectant field), " They're gone a goodish way b}' 

 now ! " It came like a bucket of cold water dashed in one's 

 face ! The first instinct was go, somewhere. Down tlie hill and 



