332 WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. 



Some devilkin, spiteful, had sure been at work, 

 And pounded the stream in that place with his fork ! 

 The' many Freemasons, of mysteries proud. 

 Were present, there was no P. G. M. in the crowd. 

 That an arch could erect on abutments astride 

 A brook only fifteen or sixteen yards wide. 

 Yet the Craft, it was said — ' Are all of them free 

 To swim thro' the water, or stop where they be.' 



Here they craning remain'd for a moment, until 

 A. Berkeley rode up to a gate near the mill : 

 But here the grim goblin, his purpose to mar. 

 Had pitch'd the flood up to the very top bar. 



To open the gate this bold effort was vain. 

 So the Sportsman return'd to his fellows again. 

 Two sovereigns now were ofFer'd a bumpkin 

 To open the gate — this bait Tony Lumpkin 

 Refus'd — for afraid of his life or his skin. 

 They could not entice the rude clodhopper in. 



The fox and the hounds meantime cross'd the river. 

 So vexatious a check to a Field happen'd never ; 

 But in minutes a few, were all in a bustle 

 By watching the move of a trump nam'd C. Russell 5 

 Who, by turning his horse in a meadow below, 

 Charg'd the water, and fearless into it they go. 

 At a place where the brook was too wide to cover. 

 Being not less than fifteen or twenty yards over ! 



His mare jump'd right into the middle in view. 

 And they both disappeared for seconds a few. 

 Had fam'd Humphrey Clinker been there, at one tug. 

 He'd have fetch'd him ashore by the tip of his lug. 



