40 Tally ho. 



of tlie hill are men in scarlet^ looming large in the 

 distance; others occupying every "coign of Vantage''' 

 on the hill-sides, some standing at favourite poinds in 

 the hope of getting a good start. Next we drav the 

 Spinneys in the park and the shrubberies arouiid the 

 house, but again I am doomed to disappointm^t, for 

 " nary-nary ^^ a fox is there, and away we tr>t to a 

 gorse cover near Pickwell, which is also drawr blank, 

 while the same result followed the drawing of /he next 

 very likely-looking cover. The hounds thenwent in 

 the direction of Whissendine, and at last a fox is 

 found in an unexpected place — namely, " uj a tree '^ 

 — dead, with a rabbit-trap attached to its foot. 

 Whether it had crawled up and died there, oihad been 

 placed there as " a sell," was a point that t)e learned 

 differed upon. A fortnight preceding this occurrence 

 a fox was found in a tree near the spot, an< the whip 

 climbed up and made him break from tts unusual 

 cover, which he did jumping down in the i^dst of the 

 pack, and giving a splitter for fourteen miutes, when 

 he went to ground, proving that the foxwhich runs 

 boldly away stands a good chance of Ipng hunted 

 again some other day. It is not consiered extra- 

 ordinary to find foxes in trees in soJe localities. 

 " Birds in their little nests agree," we aJ taught, but 

 the addition of a fox or two must be bad/or the birds, 

 I should imagine. At last, however,! live fox is 

 found, but he only potters about in te vicinity of 

 Stapleford Park, affording no sport, an so ends my 

 first day with the Cottesmore, and I ^urn home to 

 Melton, hoping for better luck next tii 



