184 FOX-HOUXD, FOREST, AXD I'll A HUE. 



tumult stronger and gayer than ever the swish of a rocketter 

 breaking the sunlight ? The pistol-like cracks of a ding-dong 

 finish may well carry excitement with them — albeit that 

 excitement is but the quivering gamble of £ s. d. — the greed 

 of money to be gained or the despair of lucre lost. You will 

 make no money at our game : but there is still your little 

 gamble. The stake is Sport — to see it or to fail. Luck may 

 have some little hand in the result — but your own manhood a 

 good deal more. We are all losers at times ; and, believe me, 

 loss is as bitter as success is entrancing. No involvement of 

 the coin-of-the-realm could enhance or detract from either. I 

 speak not of triumph over other men or of the degradation of 

 being worsted. The man who rides jealously rides not to 

 hounds. He and his bravery are misplaced and unappreciated 

 in the sphere of foxhunting. Besides, taking a season through, 

 he is " not in it " with the men whose sole effort is to be with 

 hounds, irrespective altogether of where others may be placed. 

 These will see most of the runs, and will see them with credit. 

 Jealousy will as often cut himself out while aiming to cut 

 down ; will seldom fail to annoy the huntsman ; and is certain 

 to interfere with sport. 



But of all sorts and of both sexes, fair and unfair, jealous 

 and sportloving, habited and pipeclayed, they were present on 

 Saturday as thick as the blackberries at the covertside — 

 Braunston Gorse to wit. What omen, by the bye, are we to 

 attach to a crop so unprecedented as that which decks the 

 hedges this autumn of 1886 1 Nothing to do with foxhunting 

 any how, you will say. But it had, and it may have. It had, 

 because a thirsty foxhunter was then and there busy pointing a 

 moral at this very covertside — plucking and gobbling the 

 precious fruit till Goodall's horn tented him off and wafted him 

 away. " Better than any brandy-and-soda!" he explained with 

 all the gusto that a full and thirsty mouth would allow ; and 

 away he galloped a better, leaving us a wiser, man. Again, 

 it may have ; for it may, or must, mean something — perhaps 

 a hard, perchance an open, winter in store. We shall see. 



