402 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



entered ; and, running a frosty lane, all scent seemed to have 

 disappeared. 



The afternoon hunt was full of amusement, if of no great 

 class. It was an hour at a good hunting pace from Thrus'- 

 sington Gorse, commencing with a dozen minutes' hard gal- 

 loping to Shob)' Scoles, a precipitous roadbank to slide down, 

 and various rough places to encounter throughout the run. 

 Afterwards, a loop round Old Dalby, very interesting in itself, 

 very unexciting to read in detail. "When the line leads over a 

 countr}-^ that is easily to be ridden as it comes, and when the 

 countr}' comes slow, we follow each other methodicall}' and 

 strictlj' — getting an astonishing breadth of amusement out of 

 a process that is less mechanical than instinctive. This is 

 especially the case with the ground deep and mauling as now. 



A. comes first and jumps his fence with a great deal of aplomb. 



B. comes next, and jumps it with more plomb than A., making 

 a hole in the binder, and a hole in the ground where his heels 

 left it. C. has to jump out of a puddle, and land into mu'e. 

 D. finds a bog, with half a faggot in the middle to trip him up ; 

 the rest of the alphabet walk through, and the farmer wonders 

 what has become of his fence. The funny part is that scarcely 

 anybody tumbles down. It is true that the pace has of late 

 been generally slow and uncertain. But if a spell of fast 

 running comes in, there must be free and frequent rolling 

 about. A horse still in possession of his wind will make short 

 work of an ordinar}' topbinder when once the sap of the thorn 

 has gone to the roots. The same animal, gasping and ridden 

 out, will turn helplessly' over what he could have carried com- 

 fortably' away on his knees if going at his leisure. Leicester- 

 shire never lay more wet than now. As it dries it will be 

 terribly holding. As weather becomes settled, so will scent — 

 and so shall we. At present we can splash over the ground 'f 

 soon we may stick fast in it. So the present in preference to 

 the future again ! And, to continue, from Slioby Scoles on 

 Monday the traveller wps booked via Lord Aylesford's Covert, 

 then over many intricacies in the neighbourhood of Grimston 



