In the ‘Daily Telegraph’ of last Christmas Day’s issue, we read as follows:—‘A strange innovation has just been introduced into fox-hunting records in Fifeshire. According to the “Sporting Grazette,” Colonel Anstruther-Thompson, finding that the winter promised to be a long and sharp one, made up his mind that neither frost nor snow should stop him from his favourite sport, and trained men and horses accordingly. A few days since the result was seen. With the thermometer at eight degrees below freezing-point, and the ground covered with snow, he and a number of his neighbours met, amongst them being one lady, their horses having previously had the soles of their feet covered with guttapercha. For a while, Balcorm wood was drawn without success, but presently a fox rushed out and a sharp run followed. The scent in the snow proved amazingly good; and despite all the circumstances, which until now in foxhunting have been regarded as disadvantageous, the going was of the very best. At length, however, the fox managed to escape, and, as the sun was by this time at rest, it was too late for further sport that day. But the experiment Colonel Thompson has thus successfully made has created such an impression in Scotland, that it is likely to be followed everywhere this season; so that the owners of hunters who trembled at the prospects of the early winter, may take heart, and, by the aid of guttapercha soles and a little training, yet chase the fox over snow-covered ground.’
In Colonel Anstruther-Thompson we have another
