16 "HOUNDS, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE!" 



the mystery of scent would have been revealed. In 

 the first place, there are a few foot-people about — 

 good fellows, no doubt; friends of the covert-keeper 

 maybe, all anxious to see a hunt; and who have a 

 better right ? They will not come up to their vantage 

 place near the cover fence till the horsemen appear, 

 and they will not make a noise ; but they approach 

 from different directions, and in parties squat down 

 under the shelter of neighbouring fences, out come 

 the pipes and a tobacco-parliament is held. Then 

 " the Hunt " is seen approaching ; it advances, say, 

 from the east. There is an ungated field on the 

 right, so the M.F.H. has to send the field right 

 round the covert to take post on the north side, 

 where he wishes them to stand. The gates they 

 have to pass through are in the middle of the fields, 

 therefore they cannot keep close to the covert fences, 

 and so by the time they have taken up their allotted 

 position the crowd of horsemen has thoroughly foiled 

 the ground for many yards from the covert on three 

 sides of it. From the fourth side the fox goes away, 

 but is headed back soon after, not, however, before 

 the whole field has been all over the enclosure on 

 that side also in the struggle for a start. 



There are days, of course, when there is no doubt 

 about the thing at all ; when hounds come tumbling 

 like a cataract over the covert fence, and with a swoop 

 pounce upon the scent, throw up their heads, and 

 stretch themselves out to race with one veritable 

 scream of fierce ecstasy that causes men to " boil up," 

 no matter how phlegmatic may be their temperament, 

 while those of an excitable disposition straightway 



