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ON READING AN EXTRACT FROM THE HUNTING DIARY OF VERNON DELVES BROUGHTON, ESQ., SHOWING HOW AND WHERE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON'S HOUNDS KILLED THEIR GOOSEHOLME FOX ON 29TH NOVEMBER, 1872.
A fox, by the pack sorely press'd in his flight,Reaching Marston St. Lawrence began to take fright;
In the housekeeper's room how alarming the crash,
As he shot like a thunderbolt in at the sash!
They screech'd with one voice when he first came in view,
But the halloa they gave was a hullaballoo;
Such a dust was ne'er rais'd in that parlour before
As now rais'd by the brush which was sweeping the floor;
Too late the old butler indignantly cried
‘Not at home,’ the whole pack was already inside;
Though the housewife's preserves harbour'd mice by the score,
No fox until now had set foot in her store.
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Alas! for the lady's maid, poor Mrs. Brown,
Much distress'd by the worry, the gown which she wore
Like the fox torn to pieces still worried her more;
The table o'erturn'd, and the teacups dispers'd,
Such a break-up before never ended a burst;
The servants pick'd up broken platter and bowl;
They call'd ever after that parlour Pug's hole,
And a pad, which next morning was found on the floor,
By the Page as a trophy was nail'd to the door.
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