CAPTAIN WARNER 371 



fugitive, two bloodhounds were put on his line half-an- 

 hour later. They somehow or other hit on the trail of 

 an unsuspecting traveller along the highroad ; him they 

 greatly frightened, and were with some difficulty stopped. 

 Eventually they were put on the track of the original 

 fugitive, and went away at a great pace, throwing their 

 tongues to an extent which almost rivalled in volume the 

 music of the whole of the Quorn pack. In spite of the 

 hard ground and snowdrifts, the owner of the bloodhounds 

 took the fences as they came. In due course they drew 

 up with their quarry, and then the peaceable character 

 of the bloodhound was shown by the fact of their jump- 

 ing up at the fugitive and trying to lick his face. 



The question of unnecessary damage had cropped 

 up in various countries, and of course in the Ouorn dis- 

 trict, so a circular was issued by the masters, asking their 

 followers to abstain from doing anything which might 

 irritate the farmer " in this unusually wet season," and 

 putting forth a few suggestions for their guidance, among 

 them being, that when hounds were not running the 

 field should keep as much as possible to the roads and 

 headlands, instead of galloping over the grass ; that they 

 should not ride over seeds or sown land ; and that they 

 should keep quiet, and not follow the huntsman when 

 casting the hounds. These hints, though attended to 

 by a certain number, were disregarded by many, as most 

 hunting directions are. 



In a season which had been very middling up to 

 that point, the best day the Ouorn experienced was on 

 Saturday the 30th of January, when the hounds ran 

 hard for about three-quarters of an hour from Bunny 

 Old Wood, and finally pulled down their fox near Mr. 

 Martin's new farmhouse, the distance being reckoned 

 at seven miles as hounds ran, and five from point to 

 point. The worst fall a man can get is when a horse 

 puts his foot in a rabbit-hole, and this was the hunts- 



