The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-02
FOX HUNTERS NEW YEARS
MORNING CHASE.
Reynard Ran to Cover in Cattle
Park.


The Chatham Hunt Club. twenty in
all, well mounted, assembled at it's
kennels yesterday morning at 1870
O'Clock, for its New Years Day Hunt.
The club started shortly after with
pack of fifteen handsome hounds, for
Cattle Park, with Mr.. j. K. Culver,
master of hunt
After a rapid warming up ride to the
tracks of the Thunder bolt-Sandfiy
trolley line, the hounds were put out
and the hunt began. For more than
a half-hOur the hounds worked quietly
and not a sound was heard, the dogs
deploying eagerly, but silently, the
riders keeping their ears strained, as
they advanced, for the first signal of
strike, the hounds being out of sight
and seemingly lost to the riders A
few miles further, however. the deep
warning note of Wax" famous
striker, was heard in the distance and
in an instant the entire pack opened
up and Joined in, behind the leader
on the trail in earnest. The riders
were off at the first notes and in a
short time had brought the hounds
into sight and struck the trail, but a
hasty examination proved the trail
wild cats one and the hounds after
little difficulty, were called off and led
further south.
A few miles further, near Sandfy,
another trail was struck, Tuck, an old
stand by, finding first, Wax sounding
second, and again the pack was off
and the riders soon in the run. This
time the tracks spoke the trail the real
thing and the chase begun in earnest.
DR.. NJ. Y. Corbin, an old hunter and
familiar with the ways of wary Mr..
Fox, seeing the course he had taken,
called the riders together and desig-
mated to them a ditch bank near at
hand along which he judged the fox
would run after his turn. They drew
rein and waited, the hounds running
nearly out of hearing during the riders
halt. Sure enough, true to the calcula-
ton, Reynard turned and back the
chase came the game running fast and
the hounds in full cry. The run did
not come along the ditch bank, how
ever the foe being too hard pressed,
but out of the brush the magnificent
specimen sprang and over the ditch,
close to the riders, and headed west
ward, the full pack a close second.
Then in the open the race began, six
miles westward, warming all the
time, the hounds making that stirring
music that is the most powerful heart
stimulant to one who has ever rode
to them. Faster and faster the game
SCI llit PAGE anu DIS last anu dS SlTOnS
the older dogs trailed, the younger and
greener ones dropping out and some
of the horses heaving. Again the fox
doubled, running half the distance
back then turning to the south for a
siX-mile dead run. Reynard had been
running a game chase and had made
ltboth dogs and riders 49,: and, while
running, covered ground, but the
| hounds were staying too well for him,
and after the last long stretch he de-
| cided to take to the timber, and Mr.
| Emmett Moncrieffe and Mr.. George
| Tennill, who had done mastery rid
| ing, found him roosting in a shrub
! tree, the hounds beneath him, render
| ing him harmonious but earnest SER
enade. He was dislodged when the
| other riders came up, and off he went
| again, making the run a warmer one
| than before and thinning out the pack
| more than in the previous stretches.
! This run, though speedy, was not so
long as the last, and, in a deep pail
| metto bay, fair distance from the
| tree, in which he first stopped, the
brush carrier gave up the ghost, and
the hounds caught him. Mr.. Webb of
the Green Spring Valley Club of Bal
| timore, Md, was in first here and Sc
cured the brush The handsomest
| trophy ever secured in a Chatham
| Hunt Club hunt, Those of the party
VIM Adu peeH III MANY hunts IN TINS
| section of the country say it was the
| largest and finest fox ever run to co1er
| in this section.
TWO accidents of moment but with
no serious results. happened during the
| hunt. DR.. Corbin. in the lead in the
| first chase, after the fox broke cover.
| attempted to take the bars at the gate
| way of u wire fence. and his mount
miscalculating the jump. which was a
| nigh one, struck the top bar with his
knees. knocking all of the bars down
and six panels of the fence. The horse
did not lose his feet, however, and the
accident making an easy opening for
the others, the chase went merrily on.
In the second chase. after the fox
| had been dislodged from the tree, Mr..
George Tenniile, in his haste, ran head
| on into tree and was knocked from
| his mount. Mr. Moncrieffe who was
| riding near. ran down the riderless
| horse and returning to Mr. Tennille
| who was not injured the rider re-
mounted and both resumed the run.
After the hunt the riders returned to
| the city and repaired to the club and
| refreshed themselves with a little New
Years cheer. Several toast were drunk
and general congratulations exchanged
and the tired but elated members en-
Joyed an hour or two fire-side talk. So
enthused were some of those, who had
ridden, with the run of the morning
ana the excellent results. that, after a
lew spirited invigorators they were
ready TO go to the field again.