THE BODDINGTON GALLOP. 413 



This was the first part, and the quickest part. But there 

 was no pause. The Old Customer was allowed no rest. 

 Possibly he might have held forward to Eydon had the coast 

 been clear ; but having elected, or been forced, to enter the 

 covert — where twice previously, if I mistake not, he had set up 

 a substitute — they gave him no peace, but bustled him through 

 and drove him forth again at the top. And so, by the way he 

 had come he descended the red hill ; but took ground more to 

 the right as soon as he reached the railway ; then, making his 

 route under Lower Boddington Village, he recrossed the flat 

 straight to the Gorse — hounds running heartily, if not quite so' 

 fast, as on the outward journey. There was a scent they 

 couldn't leave ; and they drove along it for blood. The world 

 of foot-people on Boddington Hill shouted a paean in his honour,, 

 and then, like so many sheep in a fox's path, set off one and all 

 to run, while he staggered into the covert at their feet. Wilson 

 galloped hounds a few hundred yards down the road, to set 

 them on still better terms at his weary brush. They sent him 

 one hot turn round the gorse, ousted him again to the same 

 great pastures of Wormleighton, drove him across three of 

 them — then held him in a double hedgerow — and, a minute 

 later, the Old Customer was laid out upon the turf. 



An hour and ten minutes it was, from when hounds first 

 threw their tongues till the who-hoop went up in the still 

 frosty air ; and of that time the Old Customer had been called 

 upon to do at least an hour at his best. Quicker, better 

 hound work was never exampled. They never threw up, and 

 they never wanted help. (That moment's ready assistance in 

 the road being only to clear them of the crowd.) We may 

 have seen hounds go even faster, but very seldom, and for 

 such time ; and none but an exceptionally stout fox could 

 have stood up so long. They were glued to him from start to 

 finish. 



