FAJFSLEY, A FIRST, AND NOTABLE, EXPERIENCE. 145 



Tom Smith and Mrs. Bunbury plunged into the wood, while 

 the others galloped round its edge. Hounds were through the 

 covert at once, bore quickly to the right into the grassy vale, 

 running nearly as fast as ever — while the whip and the lady 

 alone accompanied them. Gates and gaps made the line easy 

 for another rapid quarter of an hour; then a small detachment, 

 headed by Mr. Goodman the farmer (always an excellent rider 

 to hounds, but now only on a rough cob), with Major Water- 

 house, Captain Fawcett, and one other gentleman from the 

 Banbury district, struck in ; and the chase went back till Pres- 

 ton Wood was nearly reached. Some carts in a road apparently 

 turned the fox from that covert, for again he swung to the right, 

 and, with two couple and a half of hounds hard on his line, 

 crossed his former track (as was evidenced by handgates easily 

 recognized even in the dim light as lately passed), pointing for 

 Everdon. Smith soon became aware that some of his hounds 

 were forward, and hunting these up as quickly as he could 

 through and beyond Everdon Stubbs, came up to them at length 

 somewhere near the village of Everdon. A cluster of boys, for 

 once comparable to cherubs from the clouds, suddenly opened 

 tongue with " tally-ho," averring that the fox had crossed the 

 Everdon Brook a quarter of an hour since. For men painfully 

 alive to the fact that their horses were all more or less blown, 

 it was quite pardonable to conclude that the information merely 

 covered a ruse for procuring the rustics some little fun at the 

 brook — till hounds took up the line, and the water-jump became 

 inevitable. It was not very big — most fortunately grass to 

 grass, and the banks level — and one and all of the five riders 

 got over by persistent degrees, repeating the same feat half-a- 

 mile farther on, where the brook had made a loop in its course. 

 Now the chase held on towards Dodford, and across the Daventry 

 turnpike. By this time (quite an hour and a half from the find) 

 horses were all distinctly and emphatically protesting " Enough." 

 The scramble up the bank on to the road was, for instance, a 

 sight almost pitiable. A low, thorny gap alone made the fence ; 

 but horse after horse stopped helplessly, with head stretched 



