THE BILLESDON HUNT, 55 



on their own and their horse's ability, they 

 feel sanguine hopes of maintaining their 

 places and sustaining their laurels. Ex- 

 hibiting wonderful anxiety for a start, and 

 in a few fields losing It, Is as undignified 

 a position as any in which ambition can be 

 placed. It is a great rush made for a lead 

 over these flying grass grounds that spoils 

 so many runs. Not giving hounds time to 

 settle to the scent at the critical moment 

 just after a fox has been viewed away, a 

 check, of more or less duration, must be the 

 consequence ; and the fox gaining the ad- 

 vantage, unless the scent be better than It 

 is on an average of days, the hounds can 

 seldom get on favourable terms, unless their 

 huntsman, by a cast, which must on such 

 occasions be greatly dependent on chance, 

 renders them assistance. It Is a singular 

 coincidence, that most of the sensational 

 writers, when attempting to describe Inci- 

 dents connected with the chase, delio^ht in 



