LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Drawn by HENRY ALKEN 



AND COLOURED BY HAND 



I. THE MEET. — Let us suppose ourselves at Ashby Pasture, in 

 the Quorn Country, with Mr. Osbaldeston's hounds. — Let us 

 indulge ourselves with a fine morning, in the first week of 

 February, and at least two hundred well-mounted men by the 

 cover's side. — Time being called — say a quarter-past eleven, 

 nearly our great-grandfathers' dinner-hour — the hounds 

 approach the gorse Frontispiece 



II. MAP OF THE QUORN AND SURROUNDING 



COUNTRIES To face page i 



III. DRAWING COVER.— "Hark in, hark!" with a slight 

 cheer, and perhaps one wave of his cap, says Mr. Osbaldes- 

 ton, and in an instant he has not a hound at his horse's heels. 

 — In a very short time the gorse appears shaken in various 

 parts of the cover — apparently from an unknown cause, not a 

 single hound being for some minutes visible. Presently one 

 or two appear, leaping over some old furze which they cannot 

 push through, and exhibit to the field their glossy skins and 

 spotted sides. — The cover shakes more than ever. Every 

 stem appears alive, and it reminds us of a cornfield waving in 

 the wind. In two minutes the sterns of some more hounds 

 are seen flourishing above the gorse. " Have at him 

 there ! " holloas the Squire — the gorse still more alive, and 

 hounds leaping over each other's backs. " Have at him 

 there again — a fox for a hundred ! " reiterates the Squire, 

 putting his finger in his ear, and uttering a scream which, 

 not being set to music, we cannot give here. — Jack Stevens 

 looks at his watch. At this moment "John White," "Val. 

 Maher," " Frank Holyoake," and others are seen creeping 

 gently on towards a point at which they think it probable he 

 may break, and Billy Coke comes up at the rate of thirty 

 miles an hour on Advance, with a label pinned on his back, 

 " He kicks." — At this interesting period a snob, just arrived 

 from a very rural country, and unknown to any one, but deter- 

 mined to witness the start, gets into a conspicuous situation. 

 " Come away, sir ! " holloas the Master ; " what mischief are 



