2 54 7 ally ho. 



Then we move off, and tlie hounds are thrown into 

 Lilbourne Cover. " Halloa in ! ^^ " halloa in ! " cries 

 Goodall, but some time elapses before a hound is 

 heard to speak ; but at length I view a fox stealing 

 away and going in the direction of the railway which 

 runs along the valley, but altering his mind he bends 

 his steps to the left, going away at a screaming pace, 

 speedily followed by Goodall and his hounds. Here 

 I witnessed a novel feature in hunting, some twenty 

 or thirty men riding for a mile or more along the 

 line of railway at a splitting pace. Fortunately there 

 were no trains to compete with these impetuous 

 sportsmen, or it might have been as awkward for 

 them as it was for " Geordie Stephenson^s ^' cele- 

 brated ^^ Coo.''^ Then away we ran at a rattlmg pace, 

 the ground at this part of the run riding very heavy 

 indeed ; but crossing the Old Street-road, and getting 

 on the grass, the going is splendid. Then the fox 

 makes for Mr. Churnside^s Cover, which he skirts, 

 and leaving the house to the left, goes a burster 

 over the Grand Military Course, crossing the brook on 

 our way, which, small as it is, proved a stopper to 

 many ; thence across the splendid large grass fields 

 pointing for Yelvertoft, and away to the right towards 

 Crick Crackshill, a magnificent line of country, 

 which will be rarely found equalled in any part of 

 the shires. 



Now is the time for an eager sportsman — one who 

 cannot be persuaded to give the hounds time at the 

 start, but who is not always so eager at the finish — 

 to ride over the hounds — that is, if he can catch them, 

 for they are going a clinker, and no mistake, and 

 there is no necessity to cry " Hold hard ! '^ now, for 



