572 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



and the hunt of to-day would have been all that we, or 

 they, could have wanted. For our fox took the good line of 

 old time — from. Crick, via Claycoton, to the Hemplow : no 

 closer description is necessary. It is the same course, almost 

 field to field, that the Prince of Wales rode the year before his 

 marriage — and when you and I were, I hope, in short frocks, or, 

 at most, upon ponies. 



The frost of this morning, and the warm sun of this noon had 

 glassed the turf to a degree that was altogether inimical to 

 riding. Some of the best men were strewed in the open fields, 

 others went down as they landed in fancied safety over their 

 fences, or were shot into them as they rode to jump. When a 

 double came (the one that bounds the Stanford Hall estate 

 from Yelvertoft) every horse found three opportunities of slipping 

 up — and many did. It took thirty-five minutes to reach 

 Hemplow Hill, to ground. Had it been done in twenty-five, 

 with the ground good, we should have talked about it for many 

 a day. By the way, did you ever hear a shepherd answer, when 

 asked how long a fox had been gone — " It were a quarter-past 

 twelve?" Thus was the accuracy of the Master's watch and 

 arithmetic put to the test, in mid-chase. 



STIMULATING EXPERIENCES. 



On Saturday on which February took its departure, with the 

 sun shining even more hotly upon its last hours of daylight 

 than it has upon its whole career. Never, surely, has the 

 month been brighter and briefer than in '91. A nerve- 

 shattering day, withal, Saturday happened to be, as experi- 

 enced by the humble and luckless individual deputed to convey 

 his experience to print. He began by discovering a new and 

 tolerably effectual cooling process by which to counteract such 

 gentle fever and half regret as is apt to follow upon a sociable 

 and well prolonged overnight — viz., a whish through the air at 

 the heels of a runaway in harness. I warrant you such crude 



