The Hunt in Literature 25 



as it were out of the bowels of the earth. When 

 the fox, thus persecuted from one stronghold to 

 another, was at length obliged to abandon his valley, 

 and to break away for a more distant retreat, those 

 who watched his motions from the top slipped their 

 grey-hounds, which, excelling the fox in swiftness 

 and equalling him in ferocity and spirit, soon 

 brought the plunderer to his life's end. 



Sir IValter Scott, 



A Delightful Day -i> ><:> o 



Friday, November i6th, 1821. 



A WHOLE day most delightfully passed a hare- 

 hunting, with a pretty pack of hounds kept 

 here by Messrs. Palmer. They put me upon a 

 horse that seemed to have been made on purpose 

 for me, strong, tall, gentle, and bold, and that 

 carried me either over or through everything. I, 

 who am just the weight of a four-bushel sack of 

 good wheat, actually sat on his back from daylight 

 in the morning to dusk [about nine hours] without 

 once setting my foot on the ground. Our ground 

 was at Orcop, a place about four miles distance 

 from this place. We found a hare in a few minutes 

 after throwing oflF; and, in the course of the day, 

 we had to find four, and were never more than ten 

 minutes in finding. A steep and naked ridge, lying 

 between two flat valleys, having a mixture of pretty 

 large fields and small woods, formed our ground. 

 The hares crossed the ridge forward and backward, 

 and gave us numerous views and very fine sport. 

 I never rode on such steep ground before ,• and, 

 really, in going up and down some of the craggy 

 places, where the rains had washed the earth from 



