CHAPTER I 



••HOUNDS, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE 1 " 



I SUPPOSE it has been the unfortunate position of most 

 fox -hunters at one time or other to be laid up during 

 the hunting season by some mishap, and those whom 

 this misfortune has overtaken, I am sure, have grate- 

 ful recollection of the visits of their hunting friends, 

 who came to condole and retail the news of their 

 sport. 



On one occasion, when so disabled, I remember 

 being rather struck by the fact that though good 

 gallops were often very vividly described, I seldom 

 heard much about the work of hounds. " Hounds 

 ran past so and so. Hounds checked and could not 

 go any pace after ! " was about the utmost I learned 

 about them. Sometimes it did one good to hear that 

 "you might have covered them with a sheet," or that 

 " you never heard such a cry " ; but it was seldom, 

 indeed, that the work of any particular hound was 

 mentioned. Noticing this I sometimes used to ask, 

 "What pack was out?" and the answer was usually 

 the same. " Gad ! I didn't notice, old fellow ! Bitches, 

 I think ! (or dogs, as the case might be), but anyhow 

 they ran like blazes — no hounds could have done 



Hotmds, Oentlemen, Please, 2 



