RIDING TO HOUNDS 19 



that the near side bar is empty and the stirrup and leather 

 nowhere to be seen ; the abysmal ditch is once more searched 

 and in vain, we are about to give it up, concluding as Air. 

 Jorrocks did of his lost fox that it ' must have vanished into 

 h'air or the earth swallowed it h'up,' when a gleam in the 

 hedge catches our eye and reveals what has happened. Firmly 

 wedged in the cleft of a strong grower, which has been split 

 open some six inches from the top downwards, hangs the miss- 

 ing iron, and a numb aching in the left knee is now fully and 

 satisfactorily accounted for. We are at once on rather better 

 terms with ourself, for here seems proof positive that a fair 

 amount of steam had been turned on, and that we had not 

 charged the fence in the pusillanimous manner which usually 

 ensures such catastrophe as ours. 



After much struggling and wrenching, this important item 

 of equipment is regained and adjusted on' the saddle not such 

 an easy matter to manage while holding a horse who has 

 recovered his wind, and who, recognising in the bullfinch a 

 dreaded acquaintance, objects vehemently to again approaching 

 it and we at last remount and look about us. 



Thank goodness ! we have not been the only failure, nor of 

 us alone has the oxer taken toll. Fifty yards off another victim 

 is standing, gazing in despair at his horse who is holding up a 

 leg as if he wanted to have his pulse felt ; and still farther down, 

 two grooms, a rustic, and a scarlet-clad figure hovering round a 

 spot where four bright shoes are fitfully waving in the air, show 

 where a hunter has got fairly cast in the ditch, and to this group 

 we betake ourselves (after a passing word of encouragement to 

 the owner of the dangling limb, to the effect that he will be all 

 right in a few minutes, though without the faintest notion of 

 any ground for such assertion), with as much of the Good 

 Samaritan expression as we can manage to muster. 



The chase has, of course, rolled far away over those swelling 

 uplands ; as we can no longer play at follow-my-leader in 

 reality, neither do we greatly care to do so in imagination. 

 There can be little doubt that our pilot pursued his bold and 



C 2 



