HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 15 



authority of the Master, whose attention is so 

 much absorbed by the duties of huntsman and 

 by his keen desire to show sport, that he can 

 have Httle control over such an undisciphned 

 throng. Happily, however, his patience is not 

 often taxed in this way. Had there been a 

 burning scent and a straight neck fox to lead 

 them a merry chase over the open, many of 

 these holiday horsemen would have been shaken 

 off before half a dozen fields had been crossed ; 

 as it happened, the foxes would ring about the 

 woodlands. Scent there was none, and the 

 crowd were thus enabled to indulge to the ut- 

 most their propensity for being always in the 

 wrong place. Lord Petre, who is the best 

 friend of hunting in all the eastern counties, and 

 whose keepers are said to be retained for the 

 combined purpose of preserving foxes and des- 

 troying feathered game, cannot fail to furnish a 

 goodly supply of this very necessary element of 

 sport. In fact, there proves such an embarrass- 

 ment of riches in the well stocked coverts that, 

 with a total absence of scent, the hounds could 

 not stick to the line of one fox. Finding their 

 first in Pigott's Bushes, they ran him for a brief 

 space, then changed to another, and so kept 

 ringing round the park of Thornton and its 

 ruined mansion all day, convinced and half 

 afraid to speak ; a second later, and another 

 deeper note is heard. Then, as the pack breaks 

 into chorus, our long looked for quarry is viewed 

 stealing from brake to brake. A ringing view- 

 holloa makes him jump, and he needs no further 

 warning, but is off like an arrow, and before tlie 



