100 THE LIFE OF A FOX.

very slowly, till they were quite silent. But I
was soon after surprised to hear the huntsman
taking them across the wood where I was, and
instantly left it in a direction opposite to that
where I had seen all the hunters ride; conse-
quently only a few followed with the hounds
when they hunted me across the river and railway
into the open, beyond Coventry. They ran me
back to near the side of the river, when they were
taken to the other side, which happening to be
towards Leamington, I remained in that part, and
had got so far as Upton Wood. I was found
there a few days afterwards, by the new huntsman
of the Warwickshire hounds and that pack. Hav-
ing previously heard that they had learned much
from Carter, the Duke of Grafton’s late hunts-
man, under whom he had been whipper-in, and
that he had been doing much mischief amongst
us, I lost no time in leaving this large covert, and
was soon followed by the pack, which hunted me
at a fair pace, until they had followed me part
of the way across a dry fallow field. As my

good luck would have it, there was also another