A TOILSOME EUN. 21 



o'clock in tlie afternoon, one at last broke away 

 over the vale for Blackland Copse, through which 

 he passed without lingering a moment, and went 

 straight across the Beckhampton DoAvns to Wilcot, 

 in Assheton Smith's country, where the hounds 

 were running into him in view, when he crept into 

 a rabbit-hole in the bank of a fir plantation, from 

 which they Avould have pulled him out by them- 

 selves, but I was silly enough to listen to the 

 entreaties of a friend to spare his life, in the hopes 

 of his affording us another good gallop. We were 

 then, past four o'clock on a wintry day, more 

 tlian thirty miles from the kennels, to which we 

 had to jog on without our fox's head, which the 

 hounds had so well merited. 



The other was from Beechwood on Lansdown, 

 near Bath, to Norwood, in Wiltshire, some six or 

 seven miles distant, back, from this strong, thick 

 covert to Beechwood again, and off once more to 

 Norwood, when, within twenty yards of the wood, 

 myself, hounds, and fox rolled over the last hedge 

 together, a large stake having run into my horse's 

 shoulder, which brought us both down. This was 

 an old dark-coloured fox, with a yellow instead of 

 a white throat, and out of a large field at starting 

 there -\vere only three in at the finish, although the 

 hounds met them twice during this toilsome, hilly, 



