242 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



ing slowly back again to the leaning tree. Then from the 

 opposite bank he waded, waist deep, across the stream for a 

 more critical examination of the bank under the tree. By prod- 

 ding the bank under water a "holt" was discovered, and as 

 digging was out of the question, owing to the roots, some one 

 was dispatched to the mill below to ask the owner if he would 

 draw off the water so as to lower the stream at this point, which 

 was much too deep for successful otter hunting. The situation 

 was also described to the sport-loving miller above this point, 

 and straightwaj^ his mill ceased turning. 



For about an hour now, all hands gave themselves to rest, 

 gossip, sandwiches, and tete-a-tetes, against cocks of new 

 mown hay. Flirtations and love-making are not to be men- 

 tioned. 



However, this is a good opportunity to look over the crowd. 

 Of course, there were at the meet the usual number of truant 

 boys from the telegraph office and shops, townspeople and their 

 servants, farm and mill hands with their masters; all these, 

 by virtue of an unwritten law, came out to see the meet start, 

 followed, perhaps, for a field or two and returned to town and 

 work. Nevertheless there were still on the battle field and in 

 the thick of the fight, mothers with babes in their arms; expect- 

 ant mothers with children on foot; nurse girls with weanlings 

 hanging to their hands and skirts ; there also was the governess 

 with more sturdy lads and lasses from the hall, and a tutor 

 with a couple of dull ones he was priming for college. The 

 young doctor was there without his case and the curate without 

 his Bible. Such, in addition to the regular members of the 

 hunt, were the self-invited and very welcome contingent who 

 were followers for the day. How can English boys and girls 

 help being sportsmen when their mothers transmit to them, 

 before they are born, the thrill of the chase with which their 

 own blood is charged, and who feed it to them afterwards from 

 the maternal fount as they sit on the banks of an otter stream. 



