24 ON GOING TO COVERT: MERITS 



I envy most profoundly those individuals who are 

 not so constituted, but are able to carry on the flow 

 of daily life unruffled by absorbing anticipations. 

 Upon a hunting morning my natural placidity departs 

 from me, and I long to be away. The idea of being 

 late horrifies me beyond measure, and the very thought 

 of a breakdown with the motor used to sicken me. 



Again, by that rapid means of transit I found that 

 I entirely lost the pleasures so charmingly described 

 by the authors from whom I have quoted. What 

 pleasure can one take in the survey of a landscape 

 which flashes past at the rate of thirty miles per 

 hour ? Did I wish to point out to my companion 

 where hounds put their fox to ground in the next 

 field, or the spot which the little bay horse carried 

 me over so gallantly in the last run — who-o-osh ! the 

 place was behind us before I could raise a finger ! 

 Buzzing down one hill and humming up the opposite 

 rise, we come, perchance, on the hounds and hunt 

 servants jogging happily along in front of us, the 

 velvet hunting caps bobbing up above the hedges, and 

 sundry gleams of scarlet revealing their presence 

 before we make the turn, and calling up recollections 

 of the many pleasant jogs I used so thoroughly to 

 enjoy when I overtook hounds while " riding on." 



Those were the times when the miles appeared 

 nearly as short as the motor makes them ; when this 

 and that hound was pointed out, his merits related 

 with many an anecdote of his prowess, and reminis- 

 cences of his sire and dam came freely from the lips 

 of the civil functionary in scarlet. Then, there was 

 always a good deal to be said of what happened at 



