HARK ! that's JI.m's HALLOA 189 



holding and muddy were the rides, as we splashed and iloundered through 

 the yielding clay. Hounds faltered a few seconds, as they gained the 

 furthest of the three woods — Long Wood, I think it is called — valuable 

 seconds for the fox ; more valuable still for those who had not maintained 

 good places. But after all it was only for seconds hounds lingered, as they 

 had the clue again, and were out at the top end. There was only room for 

 one at a time between the rabbit netting and the wood, so you could only 

 earnestly urge the man in front to go faster, and trust to luck to catch 

 hounds again. Probably the fox was headed at Mr. Burchell's, for hounds 

 very suddenly turn to the left, and brought down the ivrath of the Master upon 

 a delinquent on an iron-grey horse, who was right over the line, while a 

 resolute crowd stood ready to charge the cut-down-edge with ditch towards, 

 as hounds dashed forward again over the road — an easy place into it for a 

 horse that could creep ; and a very negotiable, if rather blind fence, landed 

 us safely out of it on to the grass. 



The warning cry of " Wire " only just reached Mr. F. Green in time, for 

 he was bearing straight down on some tempting, but wire-guarded rails. 

 Two more fences turned this deadly obstruction and brought us to Nasing 

 Common. At the same time the Master issued a cordial and general invi- 

 tation for anyone to override them who could— a sheer impossibility, as 

 hounds were simply coursing over this tract of undrained land, deep, holding 

 clay, once spoken of as the future Wimbledon. 



The turf was soundest near the hedge, but even there it was a case of 

 dipping up and down over its billowy hills like a ship in a storm-tossed sea. 

 Notwithstanding, some who had blood that could go were making play 

 across it as if finishing for the Derby. But little they recked that the run 

 was not half over. I trow you pitied those four or five struggling horsemen 

 who, right in the centre of the common, were very soon like water-logged 

 ships, unable to make any headway whatever. Starting at a gay gallop 

 they were presently reduced to a trot, which, subsiding into a walk, ended 

 in a total collapse. A good mile of this and we were at Nasing Coppice. 

 If we had to put up with a shower bath at Latton Park, we were fairly irrigated 

 with mud and water as we plunged through pond after pond in the Coppice 

 ride. 



Lucky if you followed Mr. Arkwright's lead on the left and kept out of 

 it. Hot and glowing, three-and-a-half miles from the start, without the 

 semblance of any real check, we were away again from the Coppice, bearing 

 left-handed towards Deer Park. Mr. E. Ball dived over the next fence 

 under a tree, while Bailey, a bit to the right, whipped over the rails in the 

 corner, followed by Mr. Arkwright on " Actress " and Mr. Avila on a blood 

 chesnut, and in the same order crossed a slippery wooden bridge at the 

 bottom of a rough stubble field, rose the hill, and found themsehes at 

 Deer Park, the turning point, as it proved, of many a man's place and 

 position in the later part of the run. 



Over the hurdle into the wood, after Mr. Hart, jun., who is blessed with 

 his father's knack of stealing over a country without ever appearing to be 

 in a hurry ; down the boggy ride ; we were getting used to them, and by 

 the time we got through, there was not a sound to be heard or a hound 

 to be seen. '■^ Hark ! that's Jim's holloa." He had viewed the fox away in 

 the direction of Galley Hills. Up the green lane, through which the van 

 on the right, led by the Master, desperately plodded, for it was fairly up to 

 horse's hocks ; but even to gain this miry lane it had been a case of the 

 first come the first served, for there was only one possible place into it — a 

 deep, boggy hole. Never did gad-fly tickled bullocks stampede for a cooling 

 pond and mud-bath with greater eagerness than the sixty or seventy 



