STIMULATING EXPERIENCES. 575 



indeed. Even men from Australia were to be seen gasping in 

 the close heat, and old Indians to be heard fretting audibly — 

 as only old Indians can, when the thermometer is over 70° and 

 they out of reach of a punkah. Bronzed and sunburnt they all 

 looked — while the turf they galloped over was blanched and 

 faded by the same parching sunshine. The run was from 

 Knightley Wood, and hounds ran fastest over fallow Avith the 

 dust blowing over them. 



Wednesday introduced us to an element to which we have, 

 happily, long been strange— to wit, a high wind. And we 

 liked it neither for itself nor for its effect upon the parched 

 earth. There will be lame horses to-morrow, and more than 

 one sorely bruised man and woman — for that horses were 

 afraid to jump their fences clean. Having brought myself, 

 and, as far as I can tell till morning, both my horses home 

 fairly sound, I shall forego to-morrow's hunt, and wait — at all 

 events one day — for rain. (It is too expensive, Mr. Editor, it 

 is indeed!) If no ram comes within a few days, there will be 

 no one in the Grass Countries to go hunting. Already the 

 giant fields of early spring are things of the past. On the 

 other hand, if rain conies freely the farmers will not want 

 much more of us — though, as one leading farmer expressed 

 himself to me only to-day, "hunting never hurt anybody's 

 farm yet ! " At present they are thinking chiefly of their 

 lambs and their seed-sowing — and the lambs want rain, and 

 eold, no more than do the New Forest ponies. 



But in spite of drought, and wind, and haidburned ground, 

 the Pytchley worked out an excellent day's hunting — the run 

 of the afternoon occupying some three hours, covering a wide 

 tract of ground, and being an admirable instance of what a 

 patient, clever, huntsm m can do with a pack of hounds that 

 will keep their noses down. I have often ventured to assert 

 that a slow hunting run does not meet with favour in the 

 crowded Midlands — and why ? Because it is almost impossible 

 to view it in any comfort. But this does not apply to the late 

 evening when, as to-day, hounds have already travelled out of 



