BOOTS AND BREECHES. 579 



would not ride ten miles to covert before Christmas, one and all 

 have woken fully to an appreciation of the hound, and will miss 

 not a day's hunting — no matter what the distance or the diffi- 

 culty. Every pasture, too, was manned by bootmakers intent 

 upon seeing the fun and shouting at the fox. Very sporting 

 fellows are the cobblers of Daventry : and more than any of us 

 do they inveigh against the short allowance of hunting that the 

 winter has vouchsafed. The Dodford fox, being neither stout 

 of heart nor strong of limb, favoured their views to the utmost : 

 and accordingly they were in the thick of the fun till he was 

 killed. 



To snatch Braunston Gorse on the quiet was a delightful 

 chance, and hope ran high when we found it unsurrounded, 

 and knew it to be well-tenanted. Surely Shuckburgh and the 

 mid- distance never looked more inviting than now in the 

 sombre colouring of bleak March — the foreground in rusty 

 yellow, grid ironed by black bars, and the background dark and 

 sharply defined in hill and rugged woodland. Was the long- 

 looked-for run to come off? No. But it nearly did. Hounds 

 set their heads right, and we were bidden to go — till at the end 

 of ten minutes it was found that six couple of hounds alone 

 were on, with about as many riders, and that the rest had 

 slipped away, somewhere. In fact they had been carried back 

 almost to the covert, by another fox. Beyond these few 

 minutes — which had brought us upon the delectable country 

 just about to be ridden over by the Members of Parliament — ■ 

 little good could be done, though hounds tried on nearly to 

 Catesby. 



Then it became necessary to cross the little stream ; and a 

 convenient handgate and ford were found. Yes, but a crafty 

 old willow-tree had bent under the recent blizzard, and now 

 formed an archway exactly over the opening — its many small 

 and supple branches dipping almost to the water. The hunts- 

 man and his assistants, close-capped, and accustomed to push 

 through covert and thicket, proved that egress was thus possi- 

 ble ; and were soon sauntering unconcernedly up the green- 



