22 1884. 



December i6th. — 



A crisp- feeling morning after a white frost. 

 We met at the Kennels at Charlton Horethome. 

 A large field was ont, the Hon. Miss Digby and 

 her nephew, the Hon. F. Baring, having come 

 man}' miles for a ride with these honnds. We 

 did not find in Milbonie Slates, Po^-ntington 

 Withybed, Ridge, or Everlanes — and, indeed, 

 there is so little lying in these covers, a fox 

 might well choose a warmer resting place on so 

 cold a night. In Spnrles we fonnd and ran 

 np to Toomer and back ; then from Spnrles 

 again he chose a different line, and, after 

 rnnning ronnd the Red Honse Farm and 

 Bowden Village, and making up his mind to try 

 his fortune farther a-field, by taking the line of 

 Toomer Hill, he went into Frith. No doubt 

 Orbell and his hounds could tell us whether it 

 was the same or not that ran so merrily from 

 Frith over the Valley to Pile Lane Copse, out to 

 Holtham, and thence, leaving the latter cover on 

 his left, to Lanes. They, too, could tell us 

 whether he went to ground there, when we saw 

 the Master and the First Whip looking into a 



