HUNTING 149 



and pull her round. After ten or twelve walls 

 at breakneck speed we got into a bit of 

 country with a two-foot drain every few yards. 

 Still Lady Ben tore on, and we did a sort of 

 pitch and toss over the ditches. I did bless 

 the fox for turning uphill then, and the 

 hounds still more for catching him at the top. 

 My wild career was thus at an end, and when 

 the brush was fastened to my saddle and I 

 had recovered my wind I thought it a glorious 

 ride, which it was. That gallop steadied the 

 little mare, and for the rest of the day she 

 was lamblike, though to the best of my recol- 

 lection she had not much chance of being 

 anything else, as we did not do much more 

 than potter about. 



Besides hunting once or twice a week, we 

 frequently rode as well. I know of no other 

 going, unless it be the Australian bush, to 

 compare with the Campagna. The velvety 

 turf stretching like a green sea round one, the 

 blue hills of Frascati and Tivoli on one side 

 and Monte Serrato on the other, while far 

 away rises the dome of St. Peter and the seven 



