110 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



napkins are stuffed into handkercliief pockets to be discovered 

 at the first check, ten miles away. 



"Here they come! Here they come!" as the hounds, headed 

 by the first whipper-in, followed by the huntsman with the 

 pack at his horse's heels, come swinging up the winding drive- 

 way directly in front of the house, the Master bowing right 

 and left to the general handclapping and waving of napkins 

 from every available window, balcony, doorway, and porch of 

 the spacious villa. 



It lacks but five minutes of the hour (eleven) when hounds 

 will move on to draw the first covert. We therefore hurry out 

 to join the crowd, who have already formed an admiring circle 

 about the huntsman and hounds. The twelve and one half 

 couple of very carefully selected hounds, are quite unconscious 

 of the shower of compliments they are receiving and the click- 

 ing of kodaks going on about them. 



"Toot, toot!" says the huntsman's horn, as a signal to 

 mount; only two minutes more and we are off. Now all is 

 confusion worse confounded. Good-bj^es are hurriedly spoken, 

 there is an exchange of sweet-sounding salutations between 

 some of the ladies that make the men pucker their lips, but to 

 no purpose. A "where-is-my-horse or where-am-I-at" expres- 

 sion is on everyone's face, and the whole assembly is a kaleido- 

 scope. You see it all and you observe nothing. The village 

 clock no sooner strikes eleven than "Toot, toot, toot!" says the 

 horn, "crack, crack," says the thong of the whipper-in with an 

 added correction to a new entry hound that is heading for the 

 kitchen where the cook and household servants are looking on 

 from behind the screen. Twenty-five hounds and seventy-five 

 riders going forth to capture and bring to justice one Mr. 

 Reynard, an outlaw, that the untimely death of Mrs. Farmer's 

 goslings may be avenged. Wliat a grand lot of horses ! What 

 a beautiful, what a thrilHng sight ! Conveyances of all descrip- 

 tions, from a four-in-hand to a rickety hotel omnibus; from a 



