106 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



scent, it was on Friday. That there was a scent was amply 

 proved by the way the Quorn ladies burst their quarry in forty 

 minutes ; that they had not a great run was due only to the 

 fact that they did not find a straight fox. The coverts that 

 usually follow as a matter of routine upon a meet at Lowesby 

 had unfortunately sustained a visit only the week before — some 

 of them, indeed, had been within sound and touch of Sir Bache 

 Cunard's hounds only two days previously. So John u' Gaunt 

 failed for the first time, though Lord Moreton's Gorse came to 

 the rescue. Firr galloped hounds across the railway that now 

 cuts this fair valley to pieces, and laid them on beside the line 

 before a quarter of the field had descended the steep hill on 

 which the covert is situated. Then it became a matter of 

 doubt as to which side of the line to ride — whether keeping to 

 the left for the Coplow or to the right for Quenby. Cunning 

 prompted the former course ; the pack pointed the latter — and 

 we know, from frequent and bitter experience, which is the 

 better indicator. Be this as it may, not a dozen of that large 

 field were in the position of riding to hounds after they passed 

 Quenby Hall and crossed the valley for Ingarsby. The stream 

 at the bottom is not a terrific jump ; but it holds a certain 

 depth of muddy water, and its aspect is not made more attrac- 

 tive to timid horseflesh by a dead-thorn fence on the landing 

 side. Besides, there had already been ten minutes' severe 

 galloping over chopping ridge-and-furrow and ground like 

 putty. So horse after horse scotched and slipped and landed 

 clumsily upon the thorns ; and none jumped clean and cleverly. 

 Among the small number of riders near hounds were at least 

 four ladies ; and these, whether by accident or by tribute of 

 place aux dames, issued from the high fence preceding the 

 brook in a string, to charge the stream in like order. No. 1 

 got over best of the whole party ; No. 2 landed with a struggle, 

 and in safety ; but No. 3, as well mounted and accomplished, 

 remained poised so long — with horse's forefeet on the far bank 

 and hindlegs planted on nothing — that no alternative remained 

 but a faint scream, and a too audible splash. Oh, Mr. Editor, 



