1 
THE CHACE. 
who long hunted his own pack, and in an instant he has 
not a hound at his horse's heels. In a very short time 
the gorse appears shaken in various parts of the cover 
apparently from an unknown cause, not a single hound 
being for some minutes visible. Presently one or two 
appear, leaping over some old furze which they cannot 
push through, and exhibit to the field their glossy skins 
and spotted sides. " Oh you beauties !" exclaims some 
old Meltonian, rapturously fond of the sport. Two 
minutes more elapse ; another hound slips out of cover, 
and takes a short turn outside, with his nose to the ground 
and his stern lashing his side thinking, no doubt, he 
might touch on a drag, should Reynard have been abroad 
in the night. Hounds have no business to think, thinks 
the second whipper-in, who observes him ; but one 
crack of his whip, with " Rasselas, Rasselas, where are 
you going, Rasselas ? Get to cover, Rasselas ;" and 
Rasselas immediately disappears. Five minutes more 
pass away. "No fox here," says one ; " Don't be in 
a hurry," cries Mr. Cradock* ; " they are drawing it 
beautifully, and there is rare lying in it." These words 
are scarcely uttered, when the cover shakes more than 
ever. Every stem appears alive, and it reminds us of a 
corn-field waving in the wind. In two minutes the sterns 
of some more hounds are seen " flourishing" -j- above the 
* Tliis gentleman resided within the limits of the Quorn hunt, and 
kindly superintended the management of the covers. He has lately paid 
the debt of nature. 
f Technical, for the motion of a hound's stern or tail, when he first 
feels a scent, hut is not sufficiently confident to own, or acknowledge it. 
