2 34 ^^^^ Fytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



when hounds are drawing Wilmer Park or any of the 

 well-known covers round about. No sooner have the 

 hounds given notice that a fox is a-foot^ than the excite- 

 ment of father^ daughter_, and cob (an animal of exceed- 

 ing beauty) rises to summer-heat, and the latter can 

 scarcely be restrained from following in hot pursuit 

 where there is no " pathway of safety/^ 



Should a fox not be ^'^ at home ^^ in the Orlingbury 

 plantations it will be no fault of the worthy Squire^s, who 

 will not have left a stone unturned, no dodge untried, 

 to obviate such a result. 



If a run worthy of the name takes place with an animal 

 found in any of his covers, his heart is gladdened for 

 many a day, and he never tires of going over the line and 

 hearing of the incidents attending it. Then it is that 

 the lady previously referred to recalls with a sigh the 

 " Chestnut son of Thormanby," whom she rode so 

 gallantly, in spite of a disinclination on his part to face 

 the prickly fences that, sooner or later, he was forced to 

 jump. With a lack of gallantry unbecoming a steed of 

 such noble lineage, this child of a Derby-winner would 

 think it no scorn to deposit his fair burden in a ditch, 

 and to gallop off, apparently well satisfied with the per- 

 formance — very unworthy of his illustrious sire. 



Who is there that hunts with the Pytchley on the 

 Monday-side of the country who is unacquainted with 

 that " right little, tight little thicket, ''' known as " Cock- 

 a-roost '^ ? Formed by Mr. Young some five-and-twenty 

 years ago, by enclosing the patches of gorse growing 

 naturally on the hillside opposite the Isham road, and 

 scarcely exceeding an acre in extent, it has acquired a 

 reputation that might be envied by many a more preten- 



