With the Pytchley, 103 



want at this momentous crisis, but stable men — by 

 all means let us have stablemen, they are the fellows 

 to help one over a difficult country. Without them 

 we should be nowhere/^ 



" Upon my word/^ he said, '^ you are so quick. I 

 really have forgotten the point I was about to illus- 

 trate, and have dropped the thread of my argu- 

 ment.^' 



•^Pray don't trouble yourself to look for the one 

 or stoop to pick up the other,'' I replied, " you have 

 thoroughly convinced me ; and as society has its 

 duties as well as its pleasures, I think I will join the 

 ladies." 



So I left him to his politics and port wine, both of 

 which are equally dry. 



After drawing Crick covert, we trot away for Cracks- 

 hill, which we draw blank, thence to Mr. Hensworth's 

 Spinnies, where there is no trace of a fox, after which 

 Yelvertoft Field-side and Lord Spencer's cover are 

 drawn with similar results ; then away we go to Cot- 

 hill, where a fox is soon found, who goes away at a 

 screaming pace towards Hemplow, running around 

 the fish pond, back to the covert where he was found ; 

 but it being made too hot to hold him he breaks 

 away at the bottom. Going away over the road at a 

 rattling pace, he gives us a burster over the open, 

 crossing the canal, and running to Yelverton Field- 

 side, where he is lost. 



After losing our first fox, which arose from the bad- 

 ness of the scent, the weather having become gusty, 

 with whirls of hail and flakes of snow falling at times, 

 we moved ofi" to Swinford old covert, drawing it, and 

 also Stamford Hall coverts, blank ; after which a good 



