334 LEAVES FROM A HUNTINC; DI/VRV 



" I wish them good speed, a good line and a lead, 

 With the luck of each fence, where it's low : 

 \ot the last of the troop, niay they hear the ' Who-Whoop,' 

 Well pleased as they heard 'Tally-Ho.' " 



How We Did the Frost out of a Day. 



With the ebb of Hfe the circulation of the Old Year fairly 

 froze in his veins, and the New was born in frost and snow, 

 fairly puttino- a stop to hunting or any thoughts of it, and 

 we resigned ourselves contentedly for a fierce, sharp, crisp, 

 three weeks' frost, which the farmers were, or ought to have 

 been, pining for — vide " Rural Notes " in Field. 



On the night of Friday, January 4th, it w^as Lombard- 

 street to a china orange that there would be no hunting on 

 the morrow in our part of the country, and valetless men went 

 to bed without thoughts of airing the white breeches or dusting 

 the tops, for the streets were clad with iced snow and the 

 pathways were given over to the sliders. 



But a change came o'er the spirit of our dream as the grey 

 misty dawn crept in with splash of rain, and the grass yielded 

 to the prod of a stick, and the headland of the plough to the 

 heel of a shooting boot by the time we had broken our fast ; 

 but still the roads looked dangerously slippery as they glistened 

 under their snow coating. It didn't take long to send round to 

 some neighbouring stables — Egg Hall, Theydon Place, Hart- 

 land Road, but their owners had fled to town. Ah ! how we 

 missed the telephonic communication from Theydon Grove to 

 the Kennels,* but the telegraph office was not far off, and the 

 replv came back within the half-hour. "Will meet at 11.30" 

 Hurrah! 



How I should have jumped for joy ten years ago ; now, 

 however, I took it more soberly, but with news of the heavy 

 snow-fall in Berlin and on the Continent generally, none the 

 less earnestly. Nor did I hesitate for a second which horse to 

 take ; of course, the pick of the basket, f for he is as quick on 

 his legs as a cat. You want something pretty quick on slippery 

 roads. My choice is limited, but the mare has long, slippery, 

 sluthering action, which does not inspire confidence on ice- 

 glazed paths. Mufti and a covert coat seemed good enough, 

 for the north-east wind was laden with sleet. Tivo miles to 

 the meet — it took me twenty-five mimites ; and, in company with 

 two other mufti-clad| sportsmen whom I overtook gingerly 

 skirtinof the road where the o-rass offered the securest foothold 



* Mr. C. E. Green when Master of the E. H. had a telephone erected from his house to the 

 Kennels, and now in '99 it is up again. 



t " Berserker." % Messrs. Tilling and Fitch. 



