24 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



never been handled for a moment. On the far side of the 

 railway hounds could be seen going over the open moor, and it 

 looked hopeless, but the fox had not liked the heather, and 

 five minutes later he was viewed bending to the left. He re- 

 orossed the railway at Salter's Gate, went by Woodbum and 

 Butsfield Burn to the Black Banks — then a strong covert — 

 and over Hall Hill Farm to the College Wood at Gladdow, 

 where they caught him. The wonderful thing about the 

 hunt was that hounds went right through it without a check, 

 or, rather, they were always able to set themselves right when 

 they faltered, and were never touched by the huntsman, 

 who, as a matter of fact, had to stop near Burnhill owing to 

 his horse being beaten, and only saw the first part of it. From 

 Greenwell Ford to where hounds turned beyond Bum Hill is 

 seven miles, and from the turn to the kill at Gladdow five 

 miles, and, in fact, the hunt was oblong in shape. For the 

 last half -hour there were only two riders with hounds, and one 

 of the two came to grief at timber on Land House Farm, not a 

 quarter of a mile from the end. The other succeeded in re- 

 covering the brush and mask, both in a dilapidated condition, 

 but he had to leave his horse and wade waist deep through 

 the Gladdow Beck, which was in high flood after a thaw and 

 quite an impossible jump. And, very curiously, within a few 

 minutes a great number of people cast up. The Master (on 

 wheels) and several others had never left the district, for 

 hounds had slipped away at top speed, and many had funked 

 the going. All of these had stayed in the neighbourhood of 

 Gladdow, which was to have been the first draw of the day, 

 but after the kill there was a general adjournment to Broad- 

 wood, then the residence of Mr. G. G. Taylor Smith, a great 

 supporter of the hunt, where a certain amonnt of festivity 

 was a natural consequence of such a hunt. This hunt will 

 always live in my memory, because I do not remember ever 

 seeing hounds cover such a distance of ground without at least 

 one or two checks ; but there can be little doubt that the same 

 fox was in front of the pack all the way, for they never f altered 

 in going through the two or three coverts which were in 

 the line, and the fox came back into the country he had been 

 found in, and was killed barely a mile from where the hunt 

 commenced. 



