AUTUMN DAYS 



the small one. He remarks how quickly they flew 

 to the cry or their huntsman's cheer, but he also 

 says they were a little light of tongue. At this 

 time the kennel was full of the famous Badminton 

 lines of blood, going back through Potentate to 

 Dorimant. There were many badger pies, and a 

 strong family likeness existed in the pack. 



In 1879 came that famous Beckhampton run, 

 which is perhaps one of the fastest ever known. 

 A contemporary writer in the Field, who was evi- 

 dently an eye-witness, thus describes it : — 



" They had drawn the first Beckhampton Gorse 

 blank, but found directly they were thrown into the 

 second. Just one faint whimper, then not a tongue 

 was heard, and only the shrill whistle of the hunts- 

 man told that the pack was away, and stealing over 

 the moorland turf at a pace, which called out the 

 utmost powers of the fastest to catch them — aye, or 

 even to see them, as they sped on over swelling 

 spur and deep hollow towards Alton Priors. To 

 the minds of many came those unpublished lines 

 of Whyte Melville :— 



" ' How they drive to the front ! — how they bustle and spread, 



Those badger-pied beauties that open the ball ! 

 Ere we've gone for a mile, they are furlongs ahead, 



In they pour like a torrent o'er upland and wall. 

 There is raking of rowel and shaking of rein 



(Few hunters can live at the Badminton pace), 

 And the pride of the stable 's extended in vain, 



And the Blues and the Buffs are all over the place.' 



*' Nearly straight as the crow flies they raced on 



273 



