484 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIL. 



perhaps, to wonder which of all forms of impediment is the 

 most disagreeable for a big field, and in the end awarding the 

 palm (1) to red-ribboned tails (the kicker's badge), (2) to single 

 gateways and sidling horses. 



I can tell you where the gallop began, but for the life of me 

 dare not aver where, or when, the hunt commenced — or of how 

 many pieces it was formed. There is a square spinney by the 

 canal side about half-way between the villages of South Kil- 

 worth and Welford. As the lengthy caravan drew towards it, 

 hounds were to be seen in the sunlight drifting over the hill 

 towards Welford, unaccompanied and even unfollowed. They 

 had put the canal to their good : and, for all we could help it, 

 might be away on their own account to Sulby. This meant, of 

 course, a travelling fox — and, luckily for us, this fox was well 

 forward. I will not ask you to dawdle with me round the skirts 

 of the Hemplow, or to slip uselessly about its snow-covered side- 

 hills. A fox long gone, on cold snow, is no better than hare. 

 Yet I think you too might have pricked your ears had you seen 

 Goodall gather his hounds for a dash forward beyond the 

 Yelvertoft end. Mr. G. Gee had a theory at once. He knew of 

 a fox that lived on the canal bank. " Depend on it. He's afoot 

 already." And I believe he was right. The suggestion, too, 

 was endorsed by the most fox-hunting carter that ever loaded a 

 " muck-cart." " He come out just here and slipped back again. 

 Very like he's doubled along the canal bank." That man was 

 born to be a huntsman. The miserable humour of fate had 

 alone condemned him to substitute a dung-fork for a hunting- 

 horn. His fox had, indeed, slipped back — Goodall left the little 

 ladies to explain how — and now, I say, the fun began. Our 

 new-found fox couldn't possibly make the Hemplow. A string 

 of two hundred on horseback cut him off from that — and 

 promptly he showed what other country he knew. The snow 

 seemed at once to melt from beneath our feet, the heavens 

 brightened, and the world seemed warmer. For why ? We 

 were away up wind, with a drive and an earnestness that the 

 day had not yet known. A few minutes later we were travers- 



