RIDING TO HOUNDS 15 



and which were running frantic for blood.' Jorrocks's whole 

 soul was with the hounds, and he cared nothing about the riders 

 so long as they ' 'eld 'ard' when bidden, but the ' h'eagle,' taking 

 his bird's-eye view of the whole situation, would doubtless have 

 deemed the customers worthy of his attention. Let us suppose 

 ourselves, if not a 'h'eagle,' that which is at any rate more pos- 

 sible, a follower at a distance respectful, yet not too far for 

 observation of one of the men mounted and physically gifted 

 as we have endeavoured to describe ; we shall not be badly 

 placed after all ; nor, as the Frenchman said of himself in the 

 saddle, need we grumble if we can only remain. 



Our pilot has got a good start ; this, by what he openly 

 calls good luck, and in his heart knows to be due to strict 

 attention to business, he usually obtains (by the way, if poor 

 Archer had ever seriously turned his attention to hunting, he 

 would no oftener have been left behind at the covert than he 

 was at the post), and he has accentuated his position by nipping 

 over a low stile, a footboard on the taking-off side of which has 

 been the sole reason for the digression of the main body to a 

 gate some fifty yards down the fence, where they crowd, struggle, 

 swear, and ' 'ware heels ' at each other to their hearts' (dis)-con- 

 tent. As we watch him gliding over the first pasture, taking 

 the ridge-and-furrow slightly aslant, and sailing over the first 

 fence without the semblance of an effort, we could almost per- 

 suade ourselves that there is 'nothing in it,' though the way in 

 which our own steed pitches, the strength of the binders and the 

 width of the ditch in the obstacle we were inclined to despise-. 

 our horse luckily taking a juster appreciation of the difficulty go 

 far to dispel the illusion. Strange to say, as field after field is 

 thrown behind us, our leader shows no more sign of faltering, 

 no more symptom of 'coming back to his horses,' as they say 

 on the turf, than he did when he topped the third fence a few 

 seconds later than the leading hound. Nor does the pack gain 

 on him ; on the contrary, they have made a slight deflection in 

 his favour, and he is barely going at half speed. His horse 

 never makes the semblance of a blunder, taking off always ;it 



