548 



FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



front rank delinquent sent forward to watch for a fox breaking 

 covert. 



This diversion was scarcely over before a fox did break : and 

 a rush was set going. Three fields and a plough team — then 



half an hour's gate-and-hill-galloping to the Hemplow, that told 

 its exhausting tale equally on horses and on men. I believe 

 this was a great fox, had he not been driven back from the Cold 

 Ashby brow. A rough highland is the Hemplow district ; and 

 thereon we rose and plunged for nearly an hour in all — hounds 

 changing more than once, and thus missing a kill, for there was 

 a fair scent in spite of the muggy atmosphere. 



On an early day of the present week a special train brought a 

 strong body of Cambridge undergraduates to hunt with a North- 

 amptonshire pack. The district was one in which the presence 

 of an extra score or so of ardent riders was in no way incon- 

 venient ; sport and country were quite equal to the occasion ; and 

 the visitors made the most of it. "Never saw gentlemen enjoy 

 themselves so much" described the huntsman, as he narrated the 

 circumstance this morning. Questioned as to who they were, he 

 replied in another pithy sentence (for quick, keen, huntsmen 

 have no time for decorative language) "Couldn't justly catch 

 their names ; but they was all going to be dukes some day." 



