SCATTERING THE GLOOM. 287 



out betraying himself. I never saw situation grasped and 

 rectified quicker. With one short sharp chirp the huntsman 

 checks the lady pack in their forward cast ; his men pop them 

 as it were into his very pocket, and without noise, hurry, or con- 

 fusion they are righted and going again in ten seconds. In the 

 next few minutes is concentrated, perhaps, the very kernel of 

 the fun. The darkness is palpable ; the pace is the same ; while 

 the fences are problematical and close coming. The very next 

 jump has apparently no ending. We drop, not into agravelpit, 

 but into space : and, maddened with anxiety, find ourselves 

 galloping hard down a white-frosted hill side. Before we know it, 

 we are over a little brook that had nearly swallowed us unawares : 

 and now we are in the wake of half a dozen men helping each 

 other to keep touch of the pack. Now one, now another, 

 •catches a glimpse. All are riding with heads bent forward, and 

 best ear to the front — straining their eyes and catching each 

 note — dodging hither and thither as fences offer easiest (for this 

 is no country to trifle with). One makes it possible here, 

 another there — and somehow they hover on the edge of the pack, 

 as it would never be possible, or even fair, in daylight. A true 

 hunter is needed — for now it is a broad stake-and-bound, now a 

 creep. Now into a plantation and out, by guidance of a chance 

 shepherd ; and now a gorse covert looms forth. Winwick 

 Warren. Twenty-two minutes. (You have taken longer than 

 this, Mr. Brooksby, to spell out your horseshoe — though the red 

 ground was hard galloping all the way.) The line holds on, the 

 fog thickens rather than slackens, the pace has already told — 

 and in an open stubble field — ten minutes further, they are on 

 to him openly and fairly. As pretty a kill and as joysome a 

 scurry as we shall see this year. Slacken your girths and be 

 glad. 



This is life, and will savour the rest. Foxhunting will help 

 us through oil i- time. 



