02 THE BEST SEASON OX EECORD. 



men who would combat the hostile influences, day by day 

 more manifest against their liberty of" action and recrea- 

 tion, may \ve\\ afford thus to nurture the name of Fox- 

 hunting among a class that were born to honour and 

 esteem it, but are now too freely schooled to revere no- 

 thing.) 



This parenthesis gives us time to find the passing 

 storm overpast, a fresh fox found in Ashby Pastures, 

 three couple of hounds on with him to Thorpe Trussels, 

 and the huntsman galloping the others up to join them. 

 By and bye we were away up the yet wild wind, with 

 the green slopes of Twyford and Ashby Folville in front. 

 In the teeth of the breeze there was a brilliant scent — a 

 scent that proved itself marvellous in every field. For, 

 eccentric as are the ways of the wily one, I at least have 

 never known him tack and beat up the wind so sharply 

 as now. In fact, he cut and drove against it like a 

 snipe — the j^ack spreading a hundred yards broad, and 

 dashing into each twist with a swing that kept every 

 hound at top speed. There was nothing in his path to 

 turn him ; nor was there any apparent reason for his 

 passing over a fluted drain that had seemed his obvious 

 point. Possibly, finding himself pushed up the strong 

 breeze, with a wide-spread field behind him, he had no 

 alternative but to persevere. In this case the result was 

 a very bright twenty minutes' scurry, with a scent that, 

 on a day so Avild and rough, we should scarcely have 

 found down the wind. He skirted the village of Ashby 

 Folville, then at last kept his heod straight, and took us 

 gaily to I^Ir. Cheney's Long Spinney at Gaddesby — across 



