212 VARIETY IN HUNTING COUNTRIES 



short furze and brown heather intermingled — the fox 

 covert. Before we have fairly adjusted ourselves and 

 our saddles we can hear, despite the whistling of the 

 winds, that hounds have found a fox and are hard at 

 him, and we become aware that the summit is already 

 tenanted by quite a crowd of country folk, who have 

 been awaiting the arrival of the pack, and have no 

 intention of quitting their coign of vantage as long 

 as a horseman or hound is visible in the plain below. 

 With extraordinary keenness of vision they will view a 

 fox both in covert and far away from it, and their 

 intense excitement become contagious. The Master's 

 cheer and the occasional touch of his horn is supple- 

 mented by yells and rushes of the foot-people, when the 

 fox is viewed stealing along a path beneath the stunted 

 firs, or showing himself for a second among the rocks ; 

 and many strange shouts of encouragement are directed 

 at the hounds. The M.F.H. bears himself with Chris- 

 tian fortitude ; he is used to their ways, and beyond 

 a " blast all that bawling, boys ! " — very fervently 

 delivered — keeps his temper and his breath for his 

 horn and hounds. 



At last an ear-piercing yell, followed by a more 

 scientific " view holloa," sets us all off in hot haste to 

 follow the tracks of the Master. Crouching under the 

 firs, we escape decapitation, and scrambling over half- 

 hidden boulders and half-tumbling over many a tussock 

 of tufted grass, we at length find ourselves on the 

 edge of what appears to be a ghastly precipice. But 

 there is a path (or an apology for one), and the hunts- 

 man is slithering down, so we harden our hearts and 

 follow. The countrymen, be sure, are there to see 



