THE OPENING DAY. 33 



the Burton Flat, and round by Leesthorpe, it was easy 

 enougli for one and all to reacli the hounds during the 

 next quarter of an hour. 



The vio-our and life of the run bei^-an when the fox \vas 

 suddenly headed and driven back among hounds, so that 

 they coursed liiui for his life across two fields into the 

 laurels of Dalby Hall — the leaders straining at his very 

 brush, and even snapping at him as he jumped the 

 garden wall. Once round the shrubs and grounds they 

 drove him virulently — and this bursting struggle it was, 

 no doubt, that eventually cost him his brush. The many 

 who know Dalby liall, and have helped at any time to 

 reap the fruits of Mr. Hartopp's goodwill as testified to 

 three different hunts, know well enough how difficult it 

 often is to circmnvent that extensive enclosure of garden 

 and pleasure ground, covering the side and crest of a 

 hill, and attracting for awhile almost every fox found in 

 its vicinity. Now the field hurried round its outskirts, 

 expecting to meet the hounds beyond. Anon they would 

 have hurried back again ; but that the narrow lane 

 became choked and impassable. At this fatal moment 

 Reynard broke away at the point he had entered. 

 The wind blew freshly thither, and carried off any holloas 

 that may have announced his exit ; some of the pack 

 came away, still almost at his brush, the rest followed by 

 instinct ; and Firr, under the influence of some similar 

 motive power, sallied forth too as the tail hounds w^ere 

 leaving the laurels. Crossing the road below Wheathills, 

 the lengthened pack took to the grass at a pace that for 

 some fields forbade the possibility of its getting together, 



