Hunting the Stag 125 



of sportsmen whose shouts, aided by the cracking 

 of their whips, would have frightened the devil 

 himself; and these worthies, knowing the hounds 

 would catch them up in due time, resolved them- 

 selves into a hunt for the present, and pursued the 

 animal themselves. Ten minutes having expired, 

 and the hounds seeming likely to break away, 

 Jonathan thought it advisable to let them have 

 their wicked will, and accordingly they rushed ofF 

 in full cry to the spot where the deer had been 

 uncarted. Of course there was no trouble in cast- 

 ing for the scent, indeed they were very honest 

 and did not pretend to any mystery ; the hounds 

 knew within an inch where it would be, and the 

 start was pretty much like that for a hunters* plate 

 in four-mile heats. A few dashing blades rode 

 before the hounds at starting, but otherwise the 

 field was tolerably quiet, and was considerably 

 diminished after the first three leaps. The scent 

 improved, as did the pace, and presently they got 

 into a lane, along which they rattled for five miles 

 as hard as ever they could lay legs to the ground, 

 throwing the mud into each other's faces, until 

 each man looked as if he was rough-cast. A 

 Kentish waggon, drawn by six oxen, taking up 

 the whole of the lane, had obliged the dear animal 

 to take to the fields again, where at the first fence 

 most of our high-mettled racers stood still. In 

 truth, it was rather a nasty place, a yawning ditch 

 with a mud bank, and a rotten landing. " Now, 

 who's for it ? Go it, Jorrocks, you're a fox-hunter," 

 said one who, erecting himself in his stirrups, was 

 ogling the opposite side. "I don't like it," said 

 Jorrocks ; " is never a gate near r " " Oh yes, at 

 the bottom of the field," and away they all tore 

 for it. . . . 



