270 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



between the hall of Canons Ashby and the village of Morton 

 Pinkney — pursuing its way right ward to Byfield. 



Thus, as hounds raked across the park and darted under the 

 old elms, men who knew what was before them began to specu- 

 late and to think, while those who knew nothing charged 

 fiercely up to the impenetrable barrier across their path — the 

 lady pack running like birds, and riders loosed forth in all the 

 mad happiness of " a start " achieved. The situation at once 

 became desperate. If hounds should go directly forward, a 

 gallop for the level crossing, 400 yards away, would now mean a 

 surrendering of all place, and but the merest chance left of ever 

 reaching the front again. There might be means of exit on the 

 right — at any rate, it was worth seeking. So a baffled bewil- 

 dered phalanx skirted the railway, and hurried over the fences 

 alongside, in frantic search for an outlet, of which no sign was 

 to be found. Ah, the music grows no fainter ; they may yet 

 reach hounds — if only a doorway be forthcoming. The merry 

 clatter sounds positively nearer ! Hounds are actually bearing 

 our way ! 'Tis maddening. And now a queer cavernous dyke 

 with a bordering hedge of dead built thorns, puts a stop even 

 to the galloping search. We are rats in a trap — fools in a fold. 

 And hounds might almost be hunting us — as they swing by, 

 along the railway's very fence. Mr. H. Bourke has marked a 

 weak and breakable spot in the dead thorn ; but horses are for 

 some moments averse to crawling into the deep gully, with a 

 view to breasting the black parapet. Mr. Blacklock, however, 

 works through the stubborn difficulty, and opens out a wagon- 

 way, of which all make immediate and grateful use. Now the 

 party are almost riding to hounds — at any rate they are riding 

 in hope, and riding hard, with the fastest of all packs driving 

 onward in plain view — hounds on one side, they on the other of 

 this unhallowed railway. Mr. H. Bourke, Mr. G. Campbell, Mr. 

 Blacklock, Mr. Church, Lord Rodney, Lord Capell, Mr. Adam- 

 thwate, and half a dozen others make the party ; and they 

 spread out with a broad front, to take the country as it offers. 

 All grass, and all very possible, if decidedly strong. The first 



