198 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



line of his own. His nerve was good up to the last, 

 although he came in for some awful croppers in his 

 time, breaking his leg at the age of seventy. By the 

 rising generation he was looked upon as a golden 

 link between sport of the past and present, being a 

 fine specimen of a true Enghsh gentleman and an 

 officer of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. During a 

 long and varied experience, Mr. Cochrane hunted 

 with many packs and in many countries, but always 

 came back to the Belvoir, hunting the best of his 

 time from Grantham. 



The best day's sport of the season, one of the 

 hardest for horses and hounds in the annals of the 

 hunt, was on February 20th from Piper Hole. 

 The morning was frosty and the wind south-east, 

 scent lying well on the grass. Gillard had twenty- 

 three and a half couple out, made up from 

 the middle and small packs. Finding in Melton 

 Spinney, hounds ran a bee line to Kettleby ; they 

 changed foxes and raced by Scalford Station back 

 to Holwell, where he beat them after a forty 

 minutes' gallop. The second run was from Holwell 

 Mouth with a fresh fox, and he gave a brilliant 

 fifty minutes by Clawson Thorns down to Hose 

 Village, past Sherbrooke's to Little Belvoir. Here 

 he turned sharp back to his starting-point, and, 

 unfortunately, hounds changed again at Piper Hole 

 Gorse. Going away from this covert with a fresh 

 one, the pack ran hard for one hour and forty 

 minutes right into the Quorn country, passing 

 Melton Spinney, marking to ground on the railway 

 at Asfordby, where some plate-layers viewed him 



