MARCH MOMENTS. 213 



head. Fences in front at which man need turn not a yard, as 

 he issued from the glen and hurried to ride. And I fancy, 

 from what I could see of the fray, that the order of battle de- 

 pended much upon precedence at that little gateway. Two 

 earlier stake-and-bounds were good and fair along their whole 

 face. Then came an oxer in a corner — whose rail told a noisy 

 tale, as second man or third man made it good, for us who fol- 

 lowed and were thankful. Sharp to the left through a tall stalwart 

 bullfinch, the big horses of Mr. Muntz and Mr. Jameson making 

 the daylight comfortably visible. Hounds still holding a little 

 the best of it — and the pasture a full quarter of a mile across. 

 Under a tree was the only place, and a drop into a lane a next 

 necessity — while for the first time the leading horsemen fairly 

 came up to hounds. I am not good at mapping a run as I ride 

 — but from long habit I seldom, if ever, forget a fence that has 

 once caught my nervous eye. As we plunged into this road 

 and rose out of it, it struck me we were crossing the track that 

 leads from Cold Ashby to Winwick village. At all events we 

 left Winwick Warren on our left hand, and crossed the strong 

 valley to West Haddon village — half-way to which a deep little 

 watercourse, with heavy blackthorn binders laid on the farther 

 bank, came in the course. The two leaders crashed into its 

 strength ; Mr. Onslow and Mr. Schwabe flipped over in their 

 wake ; Mr. Atherton met with the temporary delay that must 

 necessarily accompany a double summersault, however deftly 

 rendered ; Mr. Logan, Mr. Greig, Mr. Adamthwaite, and Mr. 

 Pender were very much in the front rank ; and twenty men — 

 ay, and fair women among them, as is usual here — were all 

 together when a chance came to unfob the watch. 



A moment's check after this ten minutes' struggle was sue- 



CO 



ceeded by a good gallop forward, which fifty or sixty of us could 

 see and enjoy. A fine grass country still, wherein several 

 smaller ox-fences had to be doubled by the ready troop — then 

 leftward till the house of Mr. H. Atterbury (who, too, was 

 riding prominently in the run) was passed in view. And at 

 the same moment, not a hundred yards before hounds, Reynard 



