THE PYTGHLEY. 565 



matter is purely personal. The public want only a brief sketch 

 of the gallop — of which I thank you, sir, you robbed me bul 

 little. We rode onwards towards Long Buckby (after rising- 

 tor a moment almost to touch East Haddon Village), then 

 descended the valley, to find a strong country brought to a 

 comfortable level by the felling of trees — their places as yet 

 unfilled. The tree-top railings lay in many cases all split and 

 ready. There will be no wire hereabouts, Benediclte ! Now 

 we crossed the railway and reached Upper Brington — a fox in 

 view. But was he the run one ? I wot not — or how should he 

 so flippantly leap a seven foot garden-wall ? Or, maybe, the 

 change took place at Nobottle Wood. No matter. A charming 

 forty minutes' ride, and a clever hour's hunt, had been our 

 portion. 



In the afternoon we saw three more foxes found in " Sanders' 

 Gorse" — Mr. Sanders himself being at hand, upon wheels, to 

 holloa our subject away. And this fox we saw killed in Althorp 

 Park. 



Wednesday, Feb. 18, the same pack at Kilworth House — 

 and again a run, in spite of summer heat, a glaring sky, and a 

 burnt ground. Never believe that a hot sun precludes sport. 

 A high glass and a steady one will always give a scent — even if 

 hounds have to plunge en masse into a pond in the middle of 

 a run. I won't say it is nice for men — still less for women — 

 to become overheated, and to look so. But this is apart from 

 foxhunting. If a fox can be run under sunshine, why should 

 we complain that we do not shiver, that we are not buffeted by 

 wind or drenched by rain ? Not I, for one. But then I have 

 outgrown a complexion — and am not too proud to fling my 

 coat open, to thrust my hat backward, or to mop an effloriate 

 face. Wednesday's field was half womankind. Never were so 

 many ladies seen taking the country as to-day. But they can 

 do it — aye, and accept their own part, hold a gate, and hold 

 their horses, with the best of us. Personally, I often find one 

 leg on either side of my horse an incumbrance in these gateway 

 squeezes. How haniicappa 1 are they with a pair on o:n sids ^ 



