192 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



lately finished reading that fascinating novel, "Lorna Doone"; 

 and to find myself riding to the "meet" in that famous "Doone" 

 country, amid just such surroundings as the author had 

 described, was a double pleasure and made the novel doubly 

 real. I recalled also, with much pleasure, the breedy little 

 roan mare that Mr. Skinner had secured for my mount; and 

 how the hunted deer led us a steeplechase pace down one hill 

 and up another, down again, and through farm after farm, 

 over ditches and fences, some of which were big sod fences 

 where a horse jumps to the top, balances there for a moment 

 with all four feet in a bunch, and then jumps down on the 

 other side. Often there is a ditch on the opposite side, some- 

 times on both: sometimes the fence looks low on the "take off" 

 side but you find, after it is too late to change your mind, that it 

 is five feet or more from the top of the fence to the landing 

 on the other side. Then, seated on a horse that is balancing 

 liimself on the top of such a jump, it seems a terrible distance 

 to the ground. There is nothing to do but put your trust in 

 your mount, and take the drop as best you can. 



I also recall there were nearly a hundred mounted riders 

 that day, with a good sprinkling of ladies, and that it took 

 a good deal of hard riding to keep some of our fair com- 

 panions in sight, when hind and hound were racing out of 

 view. I remember how, for one hour and twenty minutes, 

 the deer set such a pace that fully half the field were left hope- 

 lessly behind in the first half of the run; and how she finally 

 took to the sea, and after swimming out for a mile or more, 

 returned to be taken on the rocky north shore of the British 

 Channel, twelve or fifteen miles from where the pack first 

 "laid on." Then the Master, Mr. Bisset, kindly presented 

 me with one of the hind's feet, which I had mounted as a match- 

 box; and a month or so after my return to America, I had 

 the pleasure of receiving the pelt of the deer, with the same 

 gentleman's compliments. It is needless to say that, with 



