48 Silk and Scarlet. 



there ; that's only the top of it ; it's a wood cover, 

 perhaps twenty acres ; now you catch the top of Hol- 

 well Clump there, where we rode last June. That's 

 the gate to Croxton Park. What a go I had there 

 many years ago, one races ! thirteen of us, whips and 

 huntsmen of all the three hunts ; such proposing of 

 healths ! I was always for larking when I was a little 

 fresh, but quite sensible. This is Branston Lings — a 

 sure find ; when it gets hollow, they burn it down ; 

 half of it you see is burnt now. Those are the Belvoir 

 covers right from this 'ere hollow to Stathern Point ; 

 such ding-dong Will has there among the cubs. 



TheSproxton That's Sproxton Thorns over our right. 



Thorns Flyer. J remember as it might be yesterday, we 

 found a fox there with Goosey, and lost him at Greet- 

 ham, sixteen miles on end ; we met next day at Crox- 

 ton ; and the Duke would go to the Thorns again. Two 

 foxes went away, and we settled to the old fox, and 

 went four miles beyond Greetham to Pickworth Wood. 

 I'm sure it was the old un, he didn't go a quarter of a 

 mile out of his Hne the day before. Mind you put 

 that down ; strange, wasn't it } 



Beiv ir Here's a pretty scene ! what they call 



Croxton Banks, on your left, all the way 

 along. Several small covers ; they run them through ; 

 some of them hold a fox. That's the coach-way to Bel- 

 voir. The Duke, my word, he's just keeping the game 

 alive. What a deal of conversation I've had with him 

 at the cover-side, one time or another, about hunting ! 

 He comes up to me, when I got back from Essex last 

 year, and he says, " Fm quite glad to see you amongst us 

 again, Dick, ifs like old times'' I says, " Thank you, 

 my lord, I is hearty and well yet for my years T Such a 

 one to go when hounds are running ! I see him jump 

 the Park-wall at Croxton, near the entrance-gate ; it's 

 nigh six feet, and a tidy drop on the other side. Will 

 Goodall, and none of them, would have it. I was 

 hunting a bit when I come up from Rufford, at Christ- 



