446 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



up, and grasp of his whip shorten six inches towards the thong. 

 Tis business now. John has just turned from a five-foot rail — 

 not because he found any fault with it, but because the young 

 one declined to cope. But he has a gate swung, and you are 

 greatly obliged to the young one. Fifty acres and another 

 gate : fifty acres more towards Waterloo Gorse, and yet another 

 gate — also Mr. John Bennett, on one of the thoroughbreds, not 

 big enough for Newmarket or Doncaster ; and the pack are 

 glinting in front, speeding faster than horseflesh. Rightward 

 they swing from a band of footpeople, and one's head almost 

 whirls with the pace and the curl while we scratch through a 

 bullfinch, mutter hard and earnest oaths at some demon unknown 

 who all but caught us in his infamous wire ; then cruise down 

 the hedge for a loophole, and ride away hotly with a tail hound 

 as guide. A double, they tell me, that reaches a mile, and 

 jumpable only in one special spot — but this is a spot that a 

 fox always chooses — and safely and readily it is left behind by 

 some six sets of hoofs, and I know not how many more, while a 

 gallery of footpeople (heaven can tell whence) yell delightedly 

 as each horse rises and lands. There is a road from Clipstone 

 running westward ; and here hounds "chucked it" for a few 

 brief seconds, while Mr. Baring and Captain Middleton sat still 

 to breathe. The pack swung to it just as Goodall galloped up ;; 

 and the burst went on to Marston Hills, dipping downwards in 

 slower measure to the vale beneath. The coverts were left on 

 the right, and the first quarter of an hour held the cream. But 

 it was some forty minutes in all before their fox was hunted into 

 the grounds of Marston Trussells, and into a rabbit-hole. 



GRIEF WITH THE GRAFTON. 



The Grafton deferred their opening day — as far as uniform 

 and their best country are concerned — beyond November's first 

 Monday. 



In mufti and merriment, though, we commenced the month :. 



