CLIMAX OF DIRT AND SPORT. 99 



for reinforcement, and have packed their employers off to the 

 scene of every sale in the kingdom. Hunting men who are 

 sadly alive to the limit of their income or their credit — or, is 

 it possible in any case, of the sum they consider the game is 

 worth ? — have already grown querulous over the state of the 

 country, avowing that hunting is " no pleasure under such cir- 

 cumstances." Ye gods, have we not known too many frost- 

 bound Februavies ? Here they have not lost a day since early 

 December — and who shall say how many open seasons he has 

 before him ? 



Friday was a day they all appreciated — though, as I have 

 said, it was the muddiest, so far, of the winter (to be outdone 

 in that respect — beaten out of memory almost — by the fol- 

 lowing Saturday and Monday). From Queniborough Village 

 to Bark by Holt was a clever flank march that at once shook 

 off half the camp following of such a corps d'armee as had 

 mustered to hunt. The Gorse alongside the Holt is an ex- 

 cellent starting point for a fox, when the field has been duly 

 marshalled — as it was on this perfect hunting-morning. A 

 good fox meant to go straight; but the disappointed following 

 of cobblers, factory-hands and what-nots, that had left Leices- 

 ter and their work behind for a share in the national pas- 

 time, were posted along the opposite hillside, by Queniborough 

 Spinney — an almost impassable chain across Reynard's path. 

 He got in among them, and was chased hither and thither — 

 like a stray hare amid the battalions of an Aldershot field 

 day — for some minutes, while huntsman and pack and field 

 bore down in hot haste upon him. By some miracle he then 

 burst through the throng, shot through one of Mr. Cheney's 

 Spinneys, and made the direction he wanted. From Gaddesby 

 Old Mill to Ashby Pastures could not have been more than 

 another quarter of an hour's galloping — but the effect at the 

 latter covert-side was apparent in a most marked degree. 

 Two noble riders bore black and deeplaid, but fortunately, 

 not serious traces of a simultaneous roll, achieved at a new 

 made drain. Another of gentle blood had been under his 



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