FAMOUS RUN OVE ^ SALISBURY PLAIN. 43 



vanced first, when his Majesty, taking both his hands in his 

 own, and without appearing even to notice his uncourtly 

 appearance, accosted him with the greatest kindness, 

 saying, " Your son Tom accompanied me in his yacht to 

 and from Holyhead." Mr. Smith afterwards acknowledged 

 that the kind manner of the king made him feel ashamed of 

 himself, and fully sensible that he had been wrong. 



" The Christmas Foxhunter," writing in the Sporting 

 Magazine, for March, 1835, gives an excellent description of 

 a famous run which had taken place in the December pre- 

 vious, from the osier beds at Amesbury to Salisbury Plain, a 

 distance of sixteen miles, and had lasted an hour and fifteen 

 minutes. The hounds had foiind their first fox among the 

 osier beds, and he had given them a clipping run, but 

 escaped by " speed and bottom." A second fox being found 

 not far from the same spot, he crossed the Avon at Ames- 

 buiy, taking the river like an otter, and shaking his brush 

 to the wind, made for Salisbury Plain. The horsemen were 

 obliged to go half a mile back to a bridge, as the river was 

 nowhere practicable, while the fox was visible before them, 

 two miles ahead. Thus, many were altogether thrown out. 

 The ground was very dry, and the hill from Amesbury, with 

 the killing pace the hounds were going, tried those who got 

 away severely. Mr. Smith rode Golden Pippin, and was 

 §rst in sight of the Plain ; as he passed Stonehenge, the 

 animal was half inclined to stop and contemplate the 

 architectural beauties of that wondrous pile, but his accom- 

 plished rider persuaded him otherwise. Many horses de- 

 clined here, and it was at this place that one of the sports- 

 men met with a severe fall. Having passed Stonehenge, 

 the hounds being in full cry, heads up and sterns down, 

 Gay Lass leading, and Barmaid and Dairymaid close to her 

 haunches, the fox passed through the village of Barwick 

 to Wishford, took the river Willy, and ran up the hill to 

 Grovelly Copse, where they killed him. The run was over 

 the lightest and most picturesque part of the country. 



