WEEK AT MARKET HARBOROUGH 79 



in the Pytchley country. Indeed, it is quite possible 

 that the man who goes out with the Pytchley on a 

 Wednesday for the first time will return home sore 

 and disappointed. He has not seen any great sport, 

 but he has been crushed at gateways, thwarted at 

 gaps, the foxes have perchance run round in circles, 

 or if one had seemed inclined to run straight he was 

 promptly chased by a cur dog, of which there are a 

 superabundance in the field. There is not much wire, 

 but still there is some ; and a stranger is very likely 

 to run up against it. It is not improbable that, 

 going out full of hope to one of the fixtures aforesaid, 

 he will spend the morning running a bewildered fox 

 round about Kilworth or Cold Ashby, and the after- 

 noon in hoping against hope that a fox may be per- 

 suaded to leave the Hemplow. When at last a fox 

 does get away, he goes perhaps to ground at Welford. 

 Nor will the stranger's feelings of disappointment be 

 less when he has perceived that it is a country of 

 delightful grass fields, not perhaps so extensive as 

 parts of the Quorn or of Mr. Fernie's Thursday 

 country, but with fences of much the same character. 

 Prizes for hedge-cutting are given in the hunt, and 

 there are not nearly so many rails in the fences as in 

 some other parts. I believe it is a country of good 

 wild foxes, and it is well preserved. There is a saying 

 in Leicestershire that a certain village contains " more 

 dogs than honest men." If the honest men and the 

 dogs are equal in numbers in some parts of both 

 Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, the standard in 

 the two counties must be high. 



A keen observer, and one who knows the hunting 

 country well, has remarked '* that every Field has its 

 own character." A cricketer has said that the differ- 

 ence between hunting in Leicestershire and North- 



