32 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



galloping ; cantering, and sometimes even trotting, 

 kept us with hounds for the next twenty minutes, 

 while they patiently worked out the line. At the end 

 of that time they marked him into a hole, which 

 looked like a rabbit-bury, in a gorsy hillside. Who- 

 whoop ! 



We all jumped off. though our horses had now pretty 

 well recovered their wind. The Master looked 

 covetously at the earth, but there is (or should be) no 

 digging in April. We all agreed that it was a 

 thousand pities hounds should lose their well-earned 

 blood, but then again it was as well so gallant a fox 



should live 



" To run again another day," 



and perchance to " teach the young idea how to " run 

 also. Personally, I greatly doubt a fox being able to 

 survive so terrific a burst. The run was in every way 

 satisfactory. It was due to the Master's knowledge 

 of and confidence in his hounds at the outset. It com- 

 bined all the requirements I have laid down as 

 necessary to a good run. The Master of course must 

 regret the absence of blood, but the season (his last, 

 by the way) was all but over, and hounds had had 

 blood enough. 



The Lifeguardsman, after congratulating the 

 Master on so good a run, started for his home, now 

 many miles away ; we five also mounted and moved 

 off. Before we had jogged a mile we met the field, 

 who of course at once commenced to depreciate the 

 run, which, nevertheless, is fixed in my memory as 

 " the best I ever saw." 



