14 TWICE TOLD TALES 



a nasty brook (in which many got a ducking), and the 

 Malmesbury turnpike road, into Charlton pond planta- 

 tion ; through this and Ravenswood, over Somerford 

 Common, into Webb's woods (three miles extent of wood- 

 lands without changing scents), up to Lidiard Park, 

 where they got up to their fox, and forcing him out of 

 covert, killed him in the open by themselves, without any 

 assistance from the find to the finish. Time, one hour 

 and fourteen minutes. Ground traversed by the hounds, 

 not much under thirty miles. 



" After leaving Greatwood the second time, until they 

 were returning from Lidiard with their fox's head, I 

 never caught a glimpse of the pack ; and all the best 

 riders, hke myself, were completely shut out of the run, 

 from the quiet and quick manner in which they slipped 

 away from covert ; and having come to no check, we 

 never could catch them. From the place where they 

 killed their fox, our hounds had then to travel twenty- 

 eight miles more before reaching their kennel." 



I have not related this as the best or longest chase 

 we ever had, or anything like it, but it was the very first 

 my eye rested upon when looking over my hunting MS., 

 and being tolerably good, it proved at the same time what 

 our pack would do without assistance from huntsman 

 or whipper-in. 



Another short notice of a clipper succeeds thus : 



" Did not find until we reached Stanmore, a bad- 

 scenting, windy day. Hounds slipped away with their 

 fox down wind, but I just heard them going, and was soon 

 with them. Ran our fox over the earths in Large's 

 Covert, then across the enclosures as if making his point 

 for Beckhampton Gorse ; being headed near a village, he 

 turned away for the downs, with his head in the direction 



