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effort found strength once more to face the open, over which the hounds fairly raced him in view, and driving him into Ryton Wood-a cover of two hundred acres-killed him in the middle of it, and within a hundred yards of the main head of earths, which were then open, after a most brilliant and satisfactory run of one hour and thirty-seven minutes, through a country beset on every side with deep and holding woodlands, and fences almost impracticable. The hounds, however, had two points especially in their favour, one of which was a real burning scent, and the other a straight and determined fox. The distance traversed was about fourteen miles, and the number of large covers passed through were nine or ten.

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Without enumerating any of the long list of first-rate runs to which I have myself been witness during my hunting career, I will content myself by transcribing from "the Journal of the Operations of the Belvoir Fox-hounds a run which took place on December 10, 1805, and which has justly been pronounced as one of the best runs ever recorded. There will be no imaginary conversation between imaginary persons introduced, no line of country selected to serve the purpose; and although there will be no "death halloa" wafted on the gales to Cottesmore, I hope I may be allowed to introduce it without further apology. WALTHAM, Dec. 10.-It had snowed considerably in the morning, and was inclined to freeze; and, as the sun had little or no power, we soon perceived, on meeting at Waltham, that there was no probability of the snow melting sufficiently to enable us to throw off in that country. As the vale of Belvoir appeared free from snow, we determined, by a rapid and sudden movement, to reach Jericho cover. Unexpected as our appearance was in that quarter, yet the foxes were not taken by surprise. On our arrival there, we were informed that a fox had been disturbed from an adjoining stubble-field, and had entered the cover. Probably he had passed through it; for, on throwing in the hounds, some of them would have brought away a scent at the gate in the top part of the cover. They soon, however, found; and the fox came away along the hedge-row that runs from the North-east corner. The hounds came out with another fox at first; but, hallooing them from him, we laid them on the scent of the former, and ran him very hard across the road that leads to Whatton; then turned to the right, and crossing the Whipling, came up nearly to the canal, two fields from Redmile Bridge. Here we experienced a check by the hounds being overriden; but they hunted him forwards, and he got up in view to the pack from some rushest in a field opposite to the windmill which stands on the Belvoir side of the canal. They now set off at the best pace, making a direct point for Bottesford Town; and then bearing to the left, crossed the Nottingham turnpike road at the toll-bar leading to Elton, leaving Bottesford completely on the right; crossed the river‡ Devon, and

"This fox had returned into the cover; and we were lucky in getting the hounds away from him.

"Many gentlemen were thrown out at this point; and such was the pace of the hounds from hence, that they never saw more of them until we turned back from Cotham.

"The only persons who leaped this wide brook were Mr. Forster and J. Wing, a farmer: the latter fell in the attempt. The rest of the field leaped into the bottom of it, and got out at a watering place for cattle, which fortunately offered itself on the opposite side.

leaving the village of Normanton on the right, and Kilvington on the left, made a direct point for Staunton; but turning to the right, went over* the road that leads from Bottesford to the North Road, up to Normanton Thorns. The fox had skirted the cover without entering it, leaving it on his left; and when we reached the top of the adjoining hill, we viewed him two fields ahead. He now took the road which leads to Long Bennington; but turned from it into the lane that leads to the left to Cotham; and leaving that, he made his point to the North Road, which he kept on his right till close to Cotham village. He had now run ten miles, with the wind directly in his teeth; and all persons were unanimous in considering it as a fine run, and in expecting immediate death. They little knew the strength and intentions of the animal before them. He had been sorely pressed since he jumped up in view; and finding that his upwind course was no longer safe, he deserted whatever point he had in that line, and turned back down wind, from Mr. Evelyn Sutton's white farm-house; by which measure he at first threw the hounds to hunting. They, however, recovered their terms in a few moments; and going back close to Long Bennington town, stretched away along a line for Foston, until they reached the road that runs from the former place towards Allington. They ran along it nearly a mile, until they came to a small fir plantation on the eastern side of the lane, in Allington Lordship. Hence they turned away to the right, by Bennington Grange, crossed the Nottingham turnpike road, left Muston village on their right, and went up to Sir John Thorold's plantation. The fox came out in view to many gentlemen, and made for the canal bridge opposite; but being headed by a man there, he returned through the cover, and away at the opposite end. Two couple of hounds got away close to his brush; and the remainder hunted after them over the river, and overtook them when within three fields of Sedgebrook village. They now again ran very hard over this beautiful country, leaving Sedgebrook on the left, with their heads directly for Barrowby Thorns. After going within two§ fields of that cover, they suddenly turned to the right, and ascended the hill which lies between the Nottingham road and the Thorns, on the top of which is a clump of fir trees. From this point several horses dated their discomfiture. The hounds, after ascending the hill, proceeded without any relaxation of pace; leaving Barrowby town half a mile on the right, pointing for Gunnerby village, but when they entered Gunnerby Open Field, they turned sharp to the right; and, going over a hollow that runs up from Grantham, they crossed the hill on the other side, went over Earle's Fields, and came down to the canal, within 200 yards of the wharf at Grantham. The fox had intended to nick a swing

"The only check that occurred between the field where the fox jumped up in view and the point whence they turned back from Cotham was at this place, owing to their being pressed along a hedge-row.

"Mr. Cholmondeley, who had been thrown out in the course of the run, hearing the hounds returning towards him, looked for the fox, and saw him come through a hedge close to him, and not more than two fields before the hounds. He crouched for a few moments, and then returned through the hedge back towards the hounds; but of course speedily changed his direction again.

"Some men had viewed him in this lane, and he was then about four or five minutes before the hounds.

"Previous to this point, he had been again twice viewed, and each time was five minutes before the hounds.

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bridge, opposite the toll-bar; but, having missed his point by 300 yards, he ran the towing-path, and then crossed over the bridge. A man who was there informed us that he had pushed across during the time he was actually standing upon it, and that he was then ten minutes before us. Crossing the Melton turnpike road, we now ascended the hill, and leaving Harlaxton Wood just upon the right, went away, at great speed on the part of the hounds, to Straxton. Leaving this place immediately on the right, they crossed the earths, and made a straight point down to Great Paunton town. Here they crossed the hight north road, and, going by the north-end of the town, went over the river and the earths by the mill; ascended the opposite hill, and going across the stone quarry, skirted Paunton Wood, as if bound for Boothby; but, turning to the right, went over the fine country to Stoke Park. They left that cover on the right, and Bassenthorpe village on the left, and, topping the hill, went away for Burton Slade Wood; when-the company being now reduced to five or six persons, the horses of the huntspeople tired and not in sight, the spirit, exertion, and strength of our extraordinary fox undiminished and unbroken, and a prospect of an immediate change in these great woodlands-it was deemed advisable to whip off the hounds at this point ;§ which was effected, with much difficulty, by Cecil Forester, Esq., and one or two others. On examining the period of duration of this wonderful chase, it was found to have lasted three hours. This run is supposed by all sportsmen to have been the best that can be remembered in the annals of fox-hunting. Its great distinguishing marks were, the distance of the point where the fox was found from the place where the hounds were whipped off from the scent, and the still greater distance of the furthest point in the run (Cotham) from the same place. The former is not less, as the crow flies, than fourteen miles; the latter, eighteen. The other qualifications which give this run a decided superiority over all others that can be remembered, were the beauty and the novelty of the country over which the fox carried us, and the extraordinary and continued pace at which the hounds ran during the whole time. Confident in his own strength, the fox never endeavoured to keep farther away from the pack than a few minutes; and to this, perhaps, is partly to be attributed the apparent goodness of the scent, and the consequent severity of the chase. He

"This fox had shown a marked dislike to water during the whole of his widely extended course. At Munston plantation, when headed from the bridge, he made no other attempt to cross the canal, though it probably was his intention at that time to make a direct point for the woodlands, which he could have done with a saving of five or six miles. Again, at Grantham Swing-bridge he was determined, in defiance of a man who was upon it, to pass over it, and effected his purpose: and in crossing the river at Great Paunton, he did not go through the river, but availed himself of a foot-bridge.

"They went through a small garden close to the village.

"Very few horsemen went forward from hence: horses were to be seen in all parts of the country in great distress, and the only gentlemen who were at the conclusion were Messrs. Forester, Berkeley Craven, and Vansittart; and of these, the two latter had not been near the hounds during the severe part of the run, after the fox jumped up in view between Redmile and Bottesford.

"Of twenty-one couples of hounds that were out, eighteen and a half couples were either immediately with the pack at the time of stopping them, or came up with the huntspeople immediately after. Among the stoutest hounds were particularly distinguishable, Traveller and Helen.

*

was at no time pressed to defeat, excepting when he gave up his Cotham point; nor did he fear showing himself occasionally, as he did before we reached Bottesford, and again at Long Bennington, and a third time at Sir John Thorold's plantation. It was thought by many persons that the hounds must have changed here; but the only foundation upon which they could rest this opinion was the impossibility of a run so severe and extensive being the exertion of a single fox. At Muston plantation he was viewed thrice, and by most of the company; and it was easy to be seen that we had not then changed; and as there never was at any time the most trifling division of scent, and we never entered any cover whatever with the exception of the above-mentioned plantation, it is certainly equally fair to presume that we never did change. It remains only to add, that during the three hours that the hounds were running, they were supposed, on a moderate calculation, to have run from thirty-five to thirty-eight miles; and that they crossed, during that period, through twenty lordships. Of the extraordinary fox which they pursued, we can only say- Semper honos, nomenque suum, laudesque manebunt.'

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There is something to me always particularly melancholy in the spring. As the close of the hunting season approaches, it invariably brings with it a train of gloomy ideas and reminiscences; of by-gone happy days; of the absence of friends who have taken their departure until the revolving year brings winter round again, and perhaps never more to return. Whether it is the consciousness of the departure of life, or feelings imbibed from the soft Favonian breath of spring, I know not, which makes this period appear so depressing to the spirits, and so productive of a desire to reflect and moralize, but there is undoubtedly something in the atmosphere of this season which is not to be perceived during any other quarter of the year; although the weather is generally finer than in the previous months, and the new and beauteous livery with which nature is still in the act of adorning herself seems to impart not only to the vegetable, but also to the animal creation, a freshness and splendour which one might suppose would awaken different ideas and feelings in the bosom of man.

As we ride along the sunny side of some lengthened and impenetrable wood, listening to the monotonous and gloomy sound of the voice of the whipper-in, or the opening note of some distant hound challenging upon a drag, or the line of a disturbed fox, every vision which rises up before us, and every object upon which we allow the eye to dwell, seems to remind us that May is not the season of the year for fox-hunting. The shrill bleating of the helpless lambs, as they start from the bank-side on which they were basking, warns us of the danger of their situation. The high notes of the thrush and the lengthened song of the blackbird seem to mock us as we cheer the well-known find. Even the modest primrose, and the powerful scent of the violet, lend their assistance to baffle our

"It must be recollected, that this fox was possessed of such stoutness, that he endured, for three hours, the pace which is in general supposed equal to the destruction of an ordinary fox in forty minutes. He had evidently a knowledge of Mr. Muster's country, by his running up wind to Cotham; and when he found that it was not safe to persevere longer in that line, he immediately determined upon reaching the Great Woodlands, nearly twenty miles distant in another direction.

attempts to pursue our unseasonable amusement, and remind us by their looks, if their voices are mute, that this must be recorded in our journal as the last day of the season. Even the honest farmer, as we pass his homestead, or the newly repaired gap-over which he peers with an indignant scowl-greets us with a very different expression, both of countenance and voice, to what he did at Christmas; and instead of the accustomed smile and the proffered glass of his wife's ale, the sullen remark of "I suppose you won't come any more this turn," forms the whole of both salutation and adieu from that disapproving quarter.

All this is anything but conducive to quiet and satisfactory feelings; and by drinking the pleasures of life to the dregs, we totally defeat the object with which they ought always to be pursued.

As we draw nearer to home, these conflicting reminiscences and visions seem to dwell more forcibly upon our fancy; and as the fleeting echo of the last blast of the horn dies away upon the ear, as we approach the kennel for the last time, this painful idea rushes across the mind-Shall I ever again enjoy this most enchanting of all recreations-this most noble and manly of all pursuits? Shall I ever again read in this

"Table, wherein all my thoughts

Are visibly character'd and engraved?"*

Or must I exclaim, when I turn my face away, as the door is shut upon the unwilling steps of my lingering companions—

"FAREWELL."?

JACKALL-HUNTING.

BY MASTER HARRY.

Jackall-hunting is one, and a very prominent one, of the amusements of the winter months at Calcutta.

The kennel is situated near the race-course, so that it may have the advantage of every breeze stirring, and is under the superintendence of an amateur huntsman, and two ditto whippers-in.

This kennel is replenished every year with about thirty couples of fox-hounds, imported from England, and purchased out of the best packs in the country; and as soon as they have had time to get into some sort of condition after their sea-voyage, the sooner they take the field the better, as it is incredible how quickly they die off; those that manage to survive the entire winter are, at the close of it, sent into the country, for the benefit of the breed of "bobbery packs," of which more anon.

The affairs of the hunt are managed by a committee chosen yearly out of the members. If I remember right, it required only an annual subscription of a gold mohur to constitute a member, and you

"Two Gentlemen of Verona."

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