28 ON GOING TO COVERT: MERITS 



however, his pent-up eagerness and energy were 

 manifest by the pace he pelted along to reach the 

 first covert, so that it never was safe to take things 

 easy on the way to the meet. In spite of all good 

 intentions, nevertheless, unforeseen accidents or con- 

 tingencies would occur at times, which caused many 

 feverish moments of misery that will not be banished 

 from recollection even after many years. I have two 

 acquaintances whom I have seldom known to be in 

 time for a meet, yet an uncanny sort of luck seems 

 to befriend their procrastinating proceedings, and just 

 as we go away with the first fox of the day 

 they turn up smiling. It is otherwise with some 

 (myself, I believe, among the number), for seldom 

 does fortune forgive them, and it is not often their 

 lot to find the chase sweeping under their very 

 noses as they hurry - from the fixture to the first 

 draw. 



There are times of a hunting morning when every- 

 thing seems to go wrong from the moment we emerge 

 from the matutinal tub to the sickening period when 

 we find ourselves a mile from the meet with the 

 hands of the watch at eleven and the hack with a 

 stone tightly wedged in between the frog and the 

 inner quarter of one of his fore shoes. Everything 

 goes wrong from the beginning ! When buttoning 

 the very last button at the knees of our breeches 

 the buttonhook came through the buttonhole with 

 ominous ease and the wretched little disc of mother- 

 o'-pearl dropped gently to the floor. The other pair, 

 which always hang ready on the back of the chair 

 for such emergencies, are then assumed so hurriedly 



