178 a iSooU 3aun, anti a <^ootr dTtmiSft. 



recently quitted, and trotting his horse slowly down 

 the wood side soon has his own opinion of master 

 pugs probable movements endorsed by busy little 

 Beeswing, whose word is a great deal more reliable 

 than the bond of many very estimable citizens. 



" Forrard," therefore, is yet again the order, but 

 the pause, though slight, was welcome ; the more so 

 as some fifty yards lower they wheel through an open 

 bridle-gate into the covert, and simply race along 

 the sodden, boggy length of its main riding, gaining 

 on our struggling horses every yard they go. What 

 a game fox it is ! for discarding all shelter, he quits 

 it by the gate at its opposite extremity, and when we 

 four turn our backs upon it the hounds have made 

 such good use of their time as to have placed already 

 the willow-fringed bottom in the vale between us 

 and themselves. 



We soon, however, get to them again, for the pace, 

 although still good, is not as good as it was in the 

 glorious preceding eighteen minutes ere the wood 

 was reached, and the country we are now entering 

 upon is less stiffly enclosed, as it had need to be, 

 although the enclosures are distressingly smaller, and 

 such being the case, the jumping, through requiring 

 less effort, is necessarily more frequent. 



We had been running in all some thirty-eight 

 minutes, when a second check occurred below the 



