114) THE BEST SEASON ON" EECORD. 



mended sensibly after the Fosse Road was recrossed and 

 as the chase swept down upon the railway by Old Dal by. 

 Hounds then ran lustily across the A'ale to the Wartnaby 

 Hills. Along- the brow they pushed cheerily — some 

 riders sticking to the vale, a greater number clinging to 

 the upper ground. From beneath^ the pack were plainly 

 to be seen working their way fast along the skyline, while 

 distant halloas proclaimed that Reynard had kept to the 

 ridge, even to Holwell Mouth. Indeed, as hounds and 

 their followers reached that covert, a fox was to be 

 viewed rising the opposite slope in the direction of Long 

 Clawson ; and, starting again on better terms with him^ 

 the hounds drove him hard into the vale again, to a point 

 midway between that village and Nether Broughton. 

 Here he lay down for some minutes in a fallow, while the 

 huntsman cast round the field. Up he then jumped in 

 view ; and the odds were 100 to 1 on a speedy kill. 

 Bat he kept ahead of them still over the green meadows 

 round Nether Broughton, and regained the hills of 

 AVartnaby (1 hour and 30 minutes to now). Beyond 

 the smaller spinney of Saxelby, he puzzled the pack for 

 a while ; and it was probably a fresh fox that took them 

 on, into and through Grimston Gorse. Thence by 

 Ragdale, Hoby, Thrussington, up to the ploughs of 

 Cossington and Segrave — mostly at a fair hunting pace, 

 and until darkness came upon them at no great distance 

 from their kennel doors. 



A monster Christmas gathering was held at Brooksby 

 Hall on Friday, December 28th. The fog of previous 

 days had changed to a thin mist, through which the sun 



