THE BEST EUN I EVEE SAW 35 



still a good bit in front. My old brown horse, the 

 Leprechaun, has a season's condition and old corn to 

 fall back on, but I am not going to press him. 

 Steadily, steadily he gallops on, throwing his fences 

 behind him almost without an effort. On, on, on ! 

 Grass fields, mostly big, and fences alone mark our 

 course, while still, well in front of us all, the pack 

 are ileeting along almost mute. 



By Jove ! how they do run ! Not a hover, let 

 alone a check, has lessened their speed since they left 

 the brookside. Now I am on a piece of slightly higher 

 ground, and have the whole panorama before me. 



Close to the hounds is Bob , with my friend 



T B in close attendance. A field behind is 



the Master, his four-hundred-guinea hunter fencing as 

 if the sixteen stone odd on his back was a fleabite. I 

 am still a field behind him ; behind to my right is a 

 stranger, a Lifeguardsman,^ who generally hunts with 

 a neighbouring pack. Further back still I see one 

 other sportsman, but where are the field ? Echo 

 answers, where ? 



I lean forward and pat the old horse's neck. 

 *' Steady, old man, this can't last. They must come 

 back to you. They've been running now for five- 

 and- twenty minutes." 



That was a trappy place ! A cart-road w^ith broad 

 ruts, eight or nine inches deep, on the landing side of 

 the fence ; but the old horse generally has a leg to 

 spare, and we are speeding on again. 



The hounds are heading now for Great Woods, 



which are many acres in extent, and quite fill yonder 

 punchbowl-shaped hollow. It is about half a mile 

 across at the widest part. There are earths in those 



^ Now a Master of Hounds. 



