282 HUNTING MISERIES: 



man would have been voted a lunatic who suggested 

 the possibility of a blank day. 



First of all, we met where we had never met before, 

 because foxes abounded in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, we were told, and there was abundance of wild 

 gorse, &c., which was strictly preserved by the owner 

 of the land. Doubtless it was the resort of foxes 

 very frequently. There were smeuses and billets to 

 prove that, and once or twice some old finder of the 

 pack would conduct her investigations so rigorously 

 as to make us hope that she had discovered traces 

 of a line ; but there was no challenge, and we came 

 away to repeat the performance elsewhere several 

 times during the morning. Something like a sigh of 

 relief went up when at length the M.F.H. went away 

 from these outlying places, and, getting on to the 

 high-road, set off at a good honest trot for ascertain 

 wood, from which no fewer than five foxes had gone 

 away the last time it was drawn. If ever there were 

 a certainty, it was before us ; but Diana decrees that 

 there shall be no certainties connected with fox- 

 hunting. If there were, perchance the sport would 

 lose some of its fascination. The wood was as blank as 

 the faces of the crowd outside, when the long-drawn 

 blast of the horn was heard to summon hounds from 

 the covert. 



Nevertheless, though the day was wearing on, hope 

 did by no means forsake us, for seldom are the 

 gorses on the hillside without a fox ; but after careful 

 investigation again the mournful blast was heard. 

 The weather, too, had turned against us now, and 

 bitterly chill came the blizzards from the black north 



