FOX-HUNTING 



looking fresh ; but only fourteen men out of the two hundred 

 are to be counted ; all the rest coming. At one blast of the horn, 

 the hounds are back to the point at which the scent has failed. 

 Jack Stevens being in his place to turn them. " Yo doit! 

 Pastime! " says the Squire, as she feathers her stern down the 

 hedge-row, looking more beautiful than ever. She speaks ! 

 " Worth a thousand, by Jupiter ! " cries John White, looking 

 over his left shoulder as he sends both spurs into Euxton, 

 delighted to see only four more of the field are up. Our Snob, 

 however, is amongst them. He has " gone a good one," and 

 his countenance is expressive of delight, as he urges his horse 

 to his speed to get again into a front place. 



' The pencil of the painter is now wanting ; and unless the 

 painter should be a sportsman, even his pencil would be worth 

 little. What a country is before him ! — what a panorama 

 does it represent ! Not a field of less than forty — some a 

 hundred acres — and no more signs of the plough than in the 

 wilds of Siberia. See the hounds in a body that might be 

 covered by a damask table-cloth — every stern down, and every 

 head up, for there is no need of stooping, the scent lying breast- 

 high. But the crash ! — the music ! — how to describe these ? 

 Reader, there is no crash now, and not much music. It is the 

 tinker that makes great noise over a little work, but at the 

 pace these hounds are going there is no time for babbling. 

 Perchance one hound in five may throw his tongue as he goes 

 to inform his comrades, as it were, that the villain is on before 

 them, and most musically do the light notes of Vocal and 

 Venus fall on the ear of those who may be within reach to 

 catch them. But who is so fortunate in this second burst, 

 nearly as terrible as the first ? Our fancy supplies us again, 

 and we think we could name them all. If we look to the left, 

 nearly abreast of the pack, we see six men going gallantly, and 

 quite as straight as the hovmds themselves are going ; and on 

 the right are four more, riding equally well, though the former 

 have rather the best of it, owing to having had the inside of 

 the hounds at the last two turns, which must be placed to the 



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