176 H (^ootj iiuu, antJ a <^ootJ dFim'^f). 



How the hounds do race ; the scent seems really to 

 be breast high, as, dropping their sterns, they show 

 us, and show us plainly, that those must ride, and 

 ride straight too, who would live with them to-day. 



How, too, each fence that is encountered or de- 

 clined thins out the ranks of the hurrying horsemen 

 in their wake, the van being scon left in the undis- 

 puted possession of some score only, who skim 

 over the wattled fences as they come, in a style 

 creditable alike to men and horses. 



The obstacles take some doing hereabouts, and we 

 are indebted greatly to our good pilot on the grey 

 for carrying away the trappy ox-rail beyond that 

 awkward double, and are most of us not too proud 

 to follow in his wake, like sheep, in single file. But 

 as this course no more surely increases the lead 

 of the leaders than it decreases the possibility 

 of those in rear catching them, it is no wonder that 

 but four of us only are absolutely with hounds as 

 they dip into the sluggish waters of the meandering 

 Filter. It is a good fourteen feet here, but no sooner 

 has the last hound shaken its dripping muddy water 

 from her spotted coat, than we four land high and 

 dry, without even a peck, to their right and left, and 

 sail on w^ith feelings considerably more enviable, I 

 fancy, than are those of the advancing cavalcade 

 approaching it in rear. 



