AND MORE GRAFTON. 27 5 



— while hounds improved the occasion and the pace. And a 

 mile or two farther on the same episodes repeated themselves, 

 to complete the programme of the run — which, by the way, was 

 now taking- place over the exact converse of the line held by 

 their Fawsley fox of a fortnight ago. Remember, it was " the 

 flower of the Hunt," as chosen and separated by the previous 

 streamlet, that now charged the Newnham and Weedon brook. 

 Horses that continued to gallop at it scarcely knew they had 

 been asked to jump — except that in two instances the fact was 

 made known to them b}>- their burden flinging himself on the 

 turf, to prostrate in lowly thankfulness for that the danger was 

 over. But, again, one or two hung on the brink, took in the 

 shallowness of the water, and elected to try the channel. These, 

 I take it (if the owners will believe me when I say I only wit- 

 nessed the act from a position of distant safety, and quite 

 without any clue to their identity), may — for all we know — 

 have been summered in a running stream — an excellent pro- 

 cess, I believe, but one hardly conducive to free water-jumping 

 when the test time comes. For my part, for " Brutus is an 

 honourable man," I headed the field of art to a bridge fifty 

 yards away — hidden from the more audacious by a tall dark 

 hedge. Hounds threw up at that moment ; and in the next 

 were routed by a pair, couple, or brace (whichever may properly 

 express a twain of swine) of fierce rampant pigs, who scattered 

 them right and left in howling confusion. Even this did 

 not disconcert the huntsman. Instinct again triumphed over 

 casualty and circumstance. He held his pack a hundred yards 

 up stream ; and they pounced on their beaten fox in a hedge- 

 row — savaging o'er the worry as I never saw a lady pack cling- 

 to it before. 



With full permission I have a little tale to tell. It involves, 

 as usual, a moral — merely, the necessity of attending to detail, 

 in foxhunting as in every-day and prosier life. These are times 

 wherein men, like hyacinths, bloom early. Whether, like them, 

 they early fade, remains to be seen. Anyhow, men of one-and- 

 twenty nowadays have forgotten far more than we of forty (and 



