104 SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



with such exceptional atmospheric conditions, and 

 the scent lying a foot or two above the surface, 

 hounds do not require to stoop to it ; all their 

 energy is concentrated on driving forward ; there 

 is no time to waste, no need to throw their tongue. 

 About half-way in this good hunt came a most 

 horrible-looking obstacle, the only one in the total 

 distance, a Board of Works drain quite impossible 

 to jump. Fortunately, the span of water at the 

 bottom was only some five or six feet ; by a 

 stroke of luck, the shelving of the drain at the 

 spot I came to was not quite perpendicular. I 

 pressed the mare, and she slithered and slid to 

 the bottom, making a lucky scramble across the 

 water ; I then slipped off her back, gave her a 

 a touch with the crop, and a gallant scramble 

 landed her on the top of the far side. By this 

 time the hounds had drawn away quite three 

 hundred yards, when fortunately the first check 

 occurred, but it was of such short duration that 

 before I got up to them they were off again. 

 For the next three or four miles the hounds ran 

 in the same relentless style, and the wonder was 

 that they did not run into their fox. I was at 

 this time most devoutly hoping that they would, 

 as the mare I was riding was not in first-class 

 fettle, and she was rapidly tiring. 



Then hove in sight a domain, which proved to 



