SPORT IN SEASON. 107 



into tlie heart of it, and to pick out for them all the 

 choicest ground by the way. Meeting at Cortlingstock, 

 they drew Bunney Park, and thence ran a distance of 

 heticeen ticenty-tico and twenty-Jour miles^ making a 

 twelve-mile point, and crossing not a dozen ploughed 

 fields in the whole run ! I trust The^ Field may be 

 furnished with a detailed account of this great hunt from 

 the pen of someone who was with them. Meanwhile the 

 following outline will convey a fair notion to those who 

 know the country. 



The hounds pressed their fox up and dow^n Bunney 

 Wood before he faced the open ; then they ran him fast 

 by Wysall and over a wild grass district between Hoton 

 and Wimeswold. Leaving Prestwold to the right, they 

 hunted on nearly to Mr. Cradock's Spinney by Six Hills ; 

 then, crossing Mr. Coupland's farm, freshened the pace 

 again till they overlooked Old Dalby. Bearing now to 

 the left, they kept above Upper Broughton, passed to the 

 right of The Curate and close by The Parson's Gorse, 

 past the left of Hickling and by Key Wood (where the 

 Belvoir had been about three quarters of an hour before). 

 As their fox failed, so did daylight ; and, though he was 

 constantly viewed as he crawled before them up to the 

 village of Colston Basset, darkness came on when another 

 ten minutes must have sufticed to kill him. 



In a week that was fruitful of no great events (bar the 

 feat of the Quorn on Saturday, when all of the Melton 

 side were hunting elsewhere), perhaps the most to enjoy 

 was found in the Christmas Eve gallop from Thrussington 

 Gorse — when the Ouorn raced a fox into view in twelve 



