OVER THE BORDER 289 



were mostly big stone walls, but handily gated, and 

 during the whole run we never touched plough. Four- 

 and-twenty minutes of the best ended in a check, and 

 though things were quickly put right, the pace was 

 distinctly slower for the rest of the run. For one 

 thing, scent was notably inferior in cover, and our fox 

 promptly availed himself of this fact to run through 

 all the many '' strips," or fir plantations, which dotted 

 the fields ; hounds doggedly stuck to him, and at last 

 drove him into a large covert. The wind was high 

 here, for we were now a good many hundred feet 

 above the woods where we had found, and it was a 

 little difficult to keep with hounds, none the less so as 

 the boggy rides through the wood were extraordinarily 

 deep and rotten after the snow and frost. One, at 

 least, of our number acquired a dirty coat here ; but 

 at last we got away on to the grass again, and as I 

 and some others approached the highest point of the 

 hill, our fox came bundling back across it and threw 

 itself into a gorse patch. A hat held up gave the 

 huntsman the office, and hounds, being at fault, were 

 quickly brought over. They failed to hit him off for 

 so long a time that I, for one, thought he had found 

 sanctuary in a rabbit-hole ; but at last they were on 

 him, and promptly bowled him over. Time, one hour, 

 and a very cheery hunt. 



Horses being changed, a long trot followed. In all 

 countries this is a wearisome proceeding, but nowhere 

 more so than in the lowlands of Scotland, where the 

 badness of the roads has to be seen to be believed. 

 However, in due time we reached a gorse covert on a 

 sheltered hillside ; and diligent inquiry found the 

 desired animal at home. At least the first whip's 

 whistle announced that he had "just stepped out," 



T 



