144 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



Another wet summer, and consequently late 

 harvest, made it impossible to start cubbing before 

 September 9th, and on the second morning out 

 with the dog pack in Knipton Coverts, they made 

 a long day of it, hunting from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., 

 returning to kennels without tasting blood. The 

 new addition to the hunt staff this season was 

 Arthur Wilson, who came as second whipper-in ; 

 and he soon showed his keenness for hounds, 

 taking great notice of them in the kennel, learning 

 much that Avas of great assistance to him when 

 he became huntsman to the York and Ainstry. 

 Unfortunately, before Wilson had been a month 

 at Belvoir, he took a very heavy fall on his head 

 when riding a young horse over a blind place, 

 and was laid up for a month. 



Against the doings of the young entry on a 

 morning in October, the most delightful month of 

 the whole season's sport, Frank records the follow- 

 ing : " I never knew a better morning for hounds, 

 now there is a good covert with nettles and briars 

 in Patman's Wood. It proved to be full of foxes. 

 Hounds were kept very busy for an hour before 

 they drew blood, and another half -hour before 

 they got hold of their second fox. Just at the 

 moment the pack were killing him, the other part 

 ran a cub to ground in a short tunnel. All the 

 hounds joined in breaking up the second cub, and 

 then I took them to mark the other to ground, 

 which we bolted and killed after a fifteen minutes' 

 scurry." 



In these record-breaking days it would be hard 



