The Hunt in Literature 37 



When the meet has assembled, the Hunt arrives. 

 After describing the hounds Mr. Masefield goes on 

 to describe the two Whips and the Huntsman 

 Robin Dawe, which might stand in its beauty and 

 truth for the character of the best type of Engh'sh 

 yeoman. These sons of the soil and children of 

 the open air who for generations have lived lives of 

 quiet devotion to duty, and when danger or diffi- 

 culties have come to their country, have shouldered 

 the burden, and have lived nobly or died courageously 

 for the great cause. It is hard to decide which to 

 admire the most in this portrait of Robin Dawe, 

 the beauty of the verse or the fidelity of its content. 

 Here realism and felicity of diction have made a 

 perfect marriage. 



Part II. of the poem opens with a description of 

 the copse where a fox is taking his rest after the 

 adventures of the night. He is sleeping with one 

 eve open and ears alert. The fox hears the sounds 

 of the approaching hunt and makes tracks for his 

 native earths. He approaches the earth only to 

 find it barred with stakes, so there is nothing for it 

 but to make tracks for another earth farther on. 

 His scent is killed for a moment by a terrier who 

 chases him fruitlessly, but it is only a brief respite, 

 as the hounds soon pick up the scent again. The 

 fox by now is in parlous case, for his next earth is 

 at Mourne End Wood, four miles ahead. At 

 length, weary and spent he nears his goal : — 



A dry, deep burrow with rocky roof, 

 Proof against crowbars, terrier proof, 

 Life to the dying, rest for bones ; 



The earth was stopped ; it was filled with stones. 



Then everything seems hopeless, and for a 

 moment his courage fails. Utterly spent he lies 



