96 HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



example by jumping some rails by a gate which 

 is being opened, the hounds running on at a fair 

 pace, and with more music in one field than the 

 Meynell Ingram hounds or Belvoir bitches 

 would show forth in a season. Some say that 

 tail hounds have no business to throw their 

 tongues ; but to-day we had fourteen and a half 

 couple, all told, and they probably all felt the 

 scent. This sort of thing goes on for a long 

 time, the next object of interest being one of 

 Her Majesty's men rolling his gold lace in the 

 mud, but a rustic catches his horse, and though 

 apparently the worse, he progresses gamely. 

 Ranksborough is on our right, and a nasty 

 scramble into, and a nastier flounder out of, a 

 strip of plantation, lands us in an immense grass 

 field studded with ant-hills, below Overton Park 

 Wood. A semi-check hit off by the hounds, 

 and down the hill we rattle. The fence at the 

 bottom is vulgarity personified! an overflowed 

 ditch to yon, a bit of bank too narrow for a horse 

 to " double " off, and a stake-and-bound fence 

 beyond. Sir John Kaye, on a neat little brown 

 horse, flies the lot — it is clearly practicable, 

 though unpleasant. " Come up horse," we are 

 well over ; and with a rush like that of a round 

 shot, a young lady charges the fence, and lands 

 by our side. The majority diverge, but on go 

 the hounds. Not carrying a head, though — not 

 running " franctic for blood " — but going along 

 with their heads in the air, and (may we suggest 

 such a notion ?) tailing a bit — yes, tailing, as we 

 leave a wood (Chesildene's Coppice, I'm tol3) 

 on the right, but running merrily down a hill 



