280 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



but they have a soul above treelaud, a spirit superior to rides 

 and rabbit paths ! Or why this same old tale? Foxes have no 

 manners : foxhounds no courtesy— and neither one nor the 

 other have the grace to wait till " All On " announces the 

 muster roll, as at the little gorses of Crick, Lilborne, Kil worth, 

 and other fairplay starting points. 



This morning, again, hounds found their fox instanter, sent 

 him the length of the wood to the same metre, and were away 

 up the breeze with a contemptuous disregard of all behind 

 them. " West was the wind, and west steered we, with both 

 sheets aft. How could that be ? " is a silly old seagoing enigma 

 that many a puzzled voyager essayed to expone this morn. 

 By the time Goodall was on the higher ground above the 

 Byfield and Daventry turnpike, the white bodies (for they all 

 are white in the far dim distance) were flicking over yonder 

 hill for Catesby. And when hounds have a start, and a scent, 

 over hill ground, nor huntsman nor devil can catch them. So 

 even He had three fields the worst of them as he rose and 

 dipped, over crest and trough of upland and valley. His 

 artless henchman had circled the first great hill by darting 

 down the Catesby lane ; and thus, with Capts. Soames and 

 Middleton, now struck the trail with a marked advantage as 

 the more level neighbourhood of Charwelton was neared. But 

 a fox seldom sets his teeth against the breeze for nothing — or 

 for little else than an open earth. This Reynard's mark was a 

 garden drain ; and here the quartette above named pulled up, 

 to groan against the fleeting vanity of earthly joys — a senti- 

 ment that was shortly brought home to the refugee, for he was 

 dislodged and unbrushed. And as the garden in question lay 

 ensconced in a quiet hollow, it was for a long time believed 

 that the Badby field had with one accord resented such cavalier 

 desertion by going home to lunch. 



Now came an interlude — not by any means an easy one for 

 hounds and huntsman, though little could be done with the fox 

 from Fawsley Laurels. He was hemmed in from his intended 

 break; and so, like many another, became "a bad fox" from 



