1/4 TJie Pytchley Hitnt^ Past and Present. 



the fox liad been chased by a dog^ and with a failing scent 

 and light, at half-past five Mr. Thomson stopped further 

 proceedings ; the last hound to own the scent, ^^ Graceful/^ 

 having been the first to speak to it in Waterloo Gorse. 

 Thus ended, somewhat unsatisfactorily, one of the 

 grandest runs ever recorded in the annals of fox- 

 hunting. 



It was over the finest part of the Pytchley and Tailby 

 countries, and for one hour and fifty minutes only three 

 ploughed fields were crossed. For one hour and forty 

 minutes Mr. Thomson was without a Whipper-in, nor once 

 had the hounds turned to him. Assisted only by Captain 

 Clerk, of Spratton, who, having lost the first, came in for 

 the second part of the run on a comparatively fresh 

 horse, he got the hounds safely home to Brixworth, a 

 distance of eighteen or nineteen miles, about ten o^clock. 

 At ten minutes to eleven he sat down to dinner, after 

 which he drove eleven miles to the Hunt Ball at Harboro', 

 where he received an ovation worthy of the day^s per- 

 formance. That this was a grand day's sport, no one 

 who knows anything of hunting will deny ; that it ^^ was 

 the best ever known,'' as has been asserted, is simply 

 claiming for it far more than its due. That a change of 

 foxes must have taken place two or three times is evi- 

 dent, and only during the earlier portion of the run was 

 the pace really severe. To Captain Thomson himself, 

 the day must ever stand out by itself as the most re- 

 markable one of a long and successful hunting-career. 



To keep hounds on one line, if not always on the sam6 

 fox, for three hours and a half, and half of that time un- 

 assisted by either Whip — to have ridden four or five 

 different horses during the run — to have fallen several 



