THE TEST OF A GOOD RUN 379 



Maynard's. Joe Reeve, on his strong chestnut started off 

 saying " They'll kill her," but kept to a line of gates and so 

 soon dropped out of it. I followed immediately, exclaiming 

 ''They won't catch her yet," accompanied by Samuel Reeve, 

 and during all the straight running he and I were keeping 

 our respective lines without another soul near the hounds and 

 having some awkward fences and deep roads to cross. 



We came to a check jast before dropping into a deep hard 

 lane without a bit of sward to light on. An old hurdle stood in a 

 gap and I asked a churl of a fellow to remove it to save the 

 drop on to the hard road ; but he refused and to save my horse 

 I therefore charged an awkward fence to my left into the next 

 field, when down he came giving me a purler, falling partly on 

 my back but alighting on the muscular projection between the 

 left shoulder and neck, and catching my small ribs on the same 

 side, thus hurting myself above and below, but just avoiding 

 my bad shoulder which was unprotected by the brace. Though 

 the hardness of the ground knocked the breath out of me I was 

 so enraged at the fellow's churlishness, that I jumped up and 

 ran towards him, more than half disposed to give him a taste of 

 my whip, but he fortunately grunted out something about riding 

 over "his land," which brought me to my senses by causing 

 me to reflect that it would not quite do to assault a man on 

 his own territory. And therefore contenting myself with a 

 short jobation I ran after "Wide Awake," and not before it 

 was time, for he was in a very dangerous position, pawing at 

 the fence into the road with both his forelegs entangled in the 

 reins and only prevented from attempting to jump into the road 

 in this state by young Barker, who being in the road was very 

 kindly and thoughtfully preventing him from making the 

 attempt with his whip. 



Shortly after this we took the deer in a ditch in Lord 

 Maynard's park, having been running two hours all but five 

 minutes. Altogether it was the best thing with stag I have 

 seen for a long time. If we had chosen our line of country it 

 could not have been better, and the pace which we were going 

 was first-rate, for during three-quarters of the running the game 

 was in view — another test of its goodness, almost every one had 

 a fall, e.o-., Kortwright (2), Blomfield, Captain Tower, Helme, 

 and Coope. The distance was eleven miles from point to point, 

 and sixteen or eighteen by the line taken by the deer, 



Easter Monday, April ist, 1850. A marked improvement 

 in the weather has occurred. Yesterday it rained a little in 

 showers which seemed to make everything grow and the birds 



