110 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



hounds fairly — if it be remembered that when the grass came 

 the fox had gone far ahead. We started in a snow storm, and 

 rode upwards to more and more snow and ice as if ascending a 

 mountain-side. But many others, from the Cottesmore, the 

 Quorn, and home country, did the same — and the whole were 

 assembled under the auspices of the Duke (alas, only in his 

 carriage) before one o'clock. Two o'clock found us, and the 

 fox, at Coston Covert — and there was once aoain the same 

 hurried, splashing start. It came to nothing, though, but a five 

 fields' ring back to covert. A second rather wider ring was in 

 progress, when another fox in view set the whole field in a glow 

 — and this was the traveller. He nearly slipped them at 

 Wymondham by running a road ; but perseverance, and a 

 knowledge of the whereabouts of Woodweli Head, put this 

 all right, and his line was carried briskly on. But I have to 

 confess to the racegoers that, well worked and indefatigable 

 as was the onward progress, this was r not a great occasion 

 missed. We should all have been in at the death, had there 

 been one — and that there was not, was mainly due to the 

 day. In Ireland it would have been described as a " moighty 

 conversational hunt." Like harriers, we fling our tongues most 

 on a cold scent. On a hot one, we have little to say beyond 

 whispering soft nothings to heedless steeds — and (have you ever 

 had occasion to notice ?) men always come at a big fence with 

 a set expression, always with their mouths open, and generally 

 with every feature awry. We jumped no big fences to-day — 

 though we hunted for nearly two hours. But everybody jumped 

 little ones and as many as he or she could. 



A little field, but a field of class and talent — churchmen, 

 soldiers, civilians, and farmers — rode the run, welcomed all that 

 Avas put before them, and under some special care came to no 

 serious grief in snowdriftor on frostedbank — though deep ground 

 and hard ground gave its evidence at every fence during the 

 second hour. 



