168 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



Frost came in December, and after that the 

 going was so terribly holding that hounds had the 

 foot of horses, and dirty coats were pretty frequent 

 amongst the riding division. Of the many good 

 days on record we choose that of December 19th 

 at Stubton. An outline of the sport we give 

 in the words of Frank's diary. " Directly we put 

 into Stubton Gorse the pack proclaimed a find by 

 giving us their fine music, which made reynard 

 bolt off in the direction of Fenton, and it soon 

 became evident that we must look pretty sharp if 

 we meant to keep with hounds as they passed to 

 the right of Fenton and Beckingham, direct as we 

 could go to Brant Broughton Upper Covert. We 

 ran two miles beyond it, and then turning to the 

 right made for Brant Broughton village, where we 

 killed him in a stable, thus ending a very good run 

 of one hour and forty-eight minutes to the Low 

 Covert. The pace was good throughout, with but 

 one check of importance which occurred after 

 crossing the Stragglethorpe and Sutton road, and 

 owing to my making a forward cast which re- 

 covered the line on the grass, the bulk of the field 

 never caught us again until we reached Brant 

 Broughton Low Covert." 



The fastest dart of the season happened on 

 January 6th with 17|^ couple of the small pack 

 from Holwell JMouth in the afternoon. Taking a 

 picked line of country under Little Belvoir to the 

 corner of AVartnaby Stone Pit, some navvies 

 headed the fox at that point. From there it was 

 a race with hounds running as if viewing their fox 



