SEASON 1872-73 49 



The last day of hunting this season was April 

 12th, and the game was played out, for the 

 weather was hot, the ground hard, and scent nil. 

 The number of days hounds went out was 134, 

 being stopped 16 days for frost, accounting for 110 

 foxes, marking 61 to ground. 



Season 1872-73 



A very early start from kennels was always the 

 rule on cub-hunting mornings, to reach the outlying 

 coverts perhaps twenty miles distant. The stable- 

 men were up before cock-crow, and the crack of a 

 whip under the huntsman's window about 3 a.m. 

 was the signal for all in the kennels to be astir. 

 On the morning of October 21st the outlook must 

 have been most uninviting, for after a time of 

 di'ought the flood-gates of heaven had opened, and 

 rain fell in torrents from 1 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fair 

 weather or foul hounds always kept their appoint- 

 ment, and by 6 a.m. twenty-nine and a half couple 

 were rousing the echoes in Sherbrooke's covert. 

 Half the country was under water in the vicinity 

 of the covert, so quickly had the floods risen, but a 

 litter of cubs were set afoot, and after a hunt lasting 

 one hour, a nose was secured for the kennel board. 

 The next find was in Hose Gorse, from which 

 covert an old fox with the pack close after him was 

 set going, running over the Canal Bridge nearly to 

 Kaye Wood, where he turned by Harby, coming 

 back by Piper Hole Gorse and Goadby Bullimore 

 to Melton Spinney. The whereabouts of the 



E 



