SOME YORKSHIRE AND WESTERN MIDLAND HUNTS. 195 



Mr. Morrell's house, and which was followed by a foot race 

 between two members of the hunt. He asks if I remember 

 this, and I certainly do remember the talk and chaff about 

 the match — which was for £10 — but I was not present. 

 Curiously enough, I did once see a foot race between a Master 

 of hounds and his huntsman, at the end of a day's hunting 

 in spring. And, more curiously, I was on my way home 

 from hunting with another pack, who had finished a fair run 

 witli a kill barely a couple of miles from where this race took 

 place. Several of us "were coming home together, and as we 

 carae down a steep hill there was an old-fashioned country 

 inu, at the cross-roads immediately below us. In the field 

 alongside there appeared to be an unusual stir for such a 

 quiet place, and we found that the Master and huntsman 

 of the neighbouring pack had had a difference of opinion as 

 to which could beat the other on foot. They had, it appeared, 

 raced half-way across a heavy ploughed field for a fox (out- 

 side a wood, from which there was no egress when it was 

 wanted, and where they had left their horses) some time 

 before, and ever since the question as to which of the two 

 was quickest on his legs had been disputed. The flat field 

 at the country inn gave them a nice trial ground, and we 

 arrived just as the huntsman had beaten his Master over a 

 fifty yards course. 



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