568 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



should have been in the main delectable, but wasn't. Railways 

 are institutions beyond cavil. Else how could we hunt here 

 to-day, and do duty in the far-else where to-morrow ? But 

 there is a certain district, chiefly given over, as far as one can 

 see, to the nursing of young steeplechasers for the winning 

 of farmers' plates — subscribed for by hunting men. It is, to 

 say the least, a little hard that this district should be fenced 

 in by wire against those who cater for such profit and amuse- 

 ment — and I should scarcely think that the comments of the 

 local markets, even if they acknowledge the obduracy of the few 

 who set their backs against public opinion, can be gratifying 

 to the self estimate of those who congratulate themselves on 

 braving it. Hounds went ; but we could not, except by gate 

 and in constant peril. We might well repair gaps— and, again 

 and again I repeat, we ought to. But if all the country were 

 thus fox-hunting would soon be as the dead languages, a study 

 of the past ; and steeplechasing and all country life would go 

 with it. 



CONTRASTS. 



I take Saturday and Monday, Feb. 21 and 23, as illus- 

 trating, not the charm of variety, but the shock of intense 

 contrast — our climate to blame, and the two days being ab^ut 

 alike in the matter of sport. 



On Monday, at any rate, it was happiness to live — on the 

 very same ground where, on Saturday, it has been painful, almost 

 difficult, to exist. Meeting, the Grafton at Preston Capes, the 

 Pytchley at Badby Wood, respectively on the north and south 

 borders of the Fawsley domain, it is not to be wondered at that 

 hounds ran identical lines from opposite directions. 



Speaking first of Saturday, there was a cold white fog when 

 hounds were thrown into covert. There was almost a black one 

 when they broke forth, a few minutes later, a few couples at the 

 very brush of their fox, into Fawsley Park. The rest were 

 hindered for a second by the closely-built wooden railings ; but 



