FROM WELSH 110 AD GORSE WITH THE WARWICKSHIRE. 205 



men had remained to see the draw and see him go — and a truly 

 wonderful proportion of these completed the gallop. As a com- 

 parative stranger, I can make not even an approximate list. 

 But of what and whom I saw I will tell — as far as acquaintance 

 will carry me and a breathless struggle has left its memory. 

 Up the wind, then, and down the road — that black dog " making 

 the run " by his drive and nose, and turning to a yard where his 

 quarry had left the gravel. Out of the road at this spot some 

 twenty men followed their proper leader, the Master, then 

 spread out to gallop and to jump. In a mile or so hounds bent 

 leftward up a thin hillside plantation, then, crossing the ridge, 

 raced on for a due southerly course. Three oak rails refused to 

 bend or break, and a crack and a roar (I trust it was only of 

 alarm, not injury) turned half the gathering phalanx to a less 

 crucial difficulty some fifty yards below — where hedgecutters 

 had just lowered the black staring bullfinch. But the lead of 

 huntsman and whip was well established over the enormous 

 pasture which hounds had already half covered — Mr. Craven 

 {fits), however, being also very visible in the van. Two ^ates 

 which formed a cart track took his lordship and Mr. Bunbury 

 parallel with the pack, yet half a field to their right ; and this 

 palpable route also had the advantage of bridging a deep ugly 

 brook. Capt. Mildmay, however, must have tackled this suc- 

 cessfully on the far left — for now he seemed suddenlv to have 

 dropped from the clouds, holding a clear, close, lead for several 

 minutes. 



A deep, hidden brook next lay on the path — but hindered 

 not half so much as did those three baleful ploughs that took 

 up the final five minutes of the first slashing twenty, and that 

 stole the steel out of many a hunter whose pedigree owned any 

 taint of such soil. By a farm building came a second pause — 

 not a fair breather, alas — then forward as fast as before — and 

 the first fence a very chasm — an honest twelve or fourteen feet 

 brook, with a fortunate stake -and -bound before it. All 

 scrambled, but few fell — though the loud clatter on the left 

 bade the most self- engrossed glance hastily round. The cause 



