80 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



a clustering crowd on the hilltop. Well, perhaps it was some- 

 thing to be spared the squeeze through the little double hand- 

 gates of the plantation below — something not to be called on to 

 scale the height of Dalby or the steep side of the Punchbowl — 

 but 'twould need the calculating soul of a money-lender to 

 derive comfort from such gains as these, on a hunting morning 

 that might have been made to order. Of course hounds have 

 run of late, and every day. Has not the glass been rising 

 steadily, slowly, for more than a week ? Has not the air been 

 still and, generally, warm ? Has not the sky been dull and 

 quiet ? and is not the ground as full of water as good drainage 

 •will allow ? After a certain point the grass will hold no more. 

 It lies in puddles on the surface ; and a horse splashes through 

 it far more easily than when the turf was only half-soaked. 

 Thus, with every requirement arranged in favour of sport, for- 

 tune has thrown in her help, foxes have travelled, hounds have 

 had every opportunity — and opportunities have been fully 

 seized. The Quorn had been by no means in the best of luck 

 up to this ; but on Friday afternoon the tide fairly turned. 



The lane by Thorpe Trussels was so closely packed that it 

 seemed impossible for all to find an outlet when the signal to 

 Go came dimly up the breeze from the Melton end of the 

 covert. But the chase spread like a charge of shot from a gun- 

 barrel, as it issued from the lane — and, ere wheels could rattle 

 down to the corner of the covert, the mass of horsemen were 

 already scattered thickly over the next half-mile to the railway 

 below. Very evenly they seemed to be riding ; and as the pack 

 wavered a moment the riders closed up into an almost solid 

 line — while the whip galloped up with stray hounds ; the 

 second horseman, finding the direction was in many cases nearly 

 homewards, hurried forward with the morning horses to see 

 something of the fun ; and steady folk pounded along the road, 

 or skirted for a nick. No province is it of mine to spy upon 

 the habits, tastes, peculiarities or subterfuges of others, who 

 ride for their own enjoyment, or at least of their own freewill 

 and in their own way. Upon wheels one may see many situa- 



