424 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIEE. [Seasox 



Willoughby Gorse ; and full discussion by the way on the great 

 unridden run from Widmerpool of the week previous — every 

 mouth watering at the sight of the sweet countrj- over which 

 hounds must have careered b}- themselves. At AVilloughby a 

 fine fox set the field in a fever ; and then — found some open 

 mouth leading to the bowels of the earth. Anyhow, hounds 

 could never touch him after he reached the road three hundred 

 3'ards fi'om the covert. And in melancholy frame we waded 

 along the Fosse Road for Walton Thorns. A fox for sixpence, 

 — no, for a penny — they are very still, and 'twas but a little 

 whimper. A fox for a hundred! A fox for ever}'- one of my 

 sound horses and cripples ! ! Nearly four o'clock on a Monda}' 

 afternoon — and the blood glows in each man's face as if he had 

 been I'obbed of such music for a month. How they scrambled 

 out to the yokel's notice that the fox was over the plough for 

 Burton ; and how they tore back to surround the covert as 

 soon as they realised that hounds were far from away, and that 

 Mr. Cradock's good covert contained another fox ! As with most 

 things, there is a right side and a wrong side to Walton Thorns. 

 In spite of the penning throng, this second fox broke rightly — 

 and a capital half-hour saved the day. Ten rapid minutes of 

 plough he gave us, before reaching the Thrussington grass : 

 then the scene changed on to ground as glorious for hound as 

 it is for horseman. I have often written — probabl}' to reitera- 

 tion — of the broad bullock-fields of the llobj' lordship, stretching 

 down to the valley of the AVreake — ever holding a brilliant 

 scent, and as firm to the tread as fair to the leap. There are 

 one or two gullies and bottoms that may come in the way ; but, 

 as hounds ran to-day, each difiiculty was exactl}' avoided. 

 The ridge and furrow came smoothly ; the fences seem to have 

 been shorn of much of their loft}' strength, and the ox rails to 

 have fallen to decay, since first we used to ride it. Do you 

 remember that thrusting burst from Cossington Gorse some 

 ten years ago, when the Prince of Wales made his earliest 

 acquaintance wtli the Quorn country by riding over it through 

 two inches of snov; ? If so, you will easily call to mind how 



