A MEDLEY AT LILBOURNE. 547 



to Hilmorton Gorse. No mutual arrangement existing by which 

 the one pack stops its earths for the other, he found safety under- 

 ground 



By this time one realised in a measure some new-comers of 

 the day. The Duchess of Hamilton was there ; also Lord 

 Lonsdale, Lord Molyneux, Messrs. Murietta, Mr. Stokes taking 

 a winter-holiday from America, and many others besides the 

 corps d'armee of the Pytchley already assembled. 



I might have been tempted to add more on the subject of the 

 country and the way it was taken — had not the gallop been cut 

 short in its bud, and the end come just as the run had fairly 

 begun. Encomium on a district that contains the old Grand 

 Military Course would be out of place as an oft-told tale. After 

 some twenty minutes to cool, the field were led off straightway 

 to Yelvertoft Field Side — and there drawn up on a bridge, as 

 many as the bridge would hold, a sight for gods and for men. 

 It was rightly ruled that the fox should have a chance given 

 him. For this cause the field were securely packed — three, four, 

 and five abreast — regardless of how they might find themselves 

 assorted, approximated, or endangered. I heard but a day or two 

 ago of an instance across the Atlantic where detective and 

 detected were called upon for nights together to share blankets 

 on a journey. There was room for similarity here, if for nothing 

 else. Your pet enemy might for fifteen solemn minutes be 

 pressing you knee to knee. Your bosom friend might be tempt- 

 ing destruction by allowing his underfed beast to lunch off your 

 ticklish mare's tail. You could neither withdraw from the one 

 nor protect the other. It was a positive relief when two hard- 

 riders continued their almost daily duel across country by 

 tangling and fighting free — all unwillingly — in the mid-crowd. 

 The one's reins became tightly tucked under the other's weighty 

 tail. The tail closed down like a vice ; the reins jerked sharply ; 

 the hinder horse struggled to rise on his hindlegs, the front horse 

 lifted himself on to his fore. One rider had all he knew to 

 keep back in his saddle, the other to keep his own balance 

 and his horse's at all — the crowd was scattered, and the 



x x 2 



