Fox-hunting Past and Present 



the scent and run impetuously ! How eagerly 

 Brusher took the lead and strives to keep it ! Yet 

 Victor comes up apace : he reaches him ! See 

 what an excellent race it is between them ! It is 

 doubtful which will first reach the covert. How 

 eagerly they run ! How eagerly strain ! Now 

 Victor, Victor ! Ah ! Brusher, you are beaten ; 

 Victor first tops the hedge ! See there ! See how 

 they all take it ! The hedge cracks with their 

 weight, so many jump at once ! " 



The while Nimrod's hard riders press on, 

 '' Snobs " gets through his horse. Second horses 

 and the Whissendine Brook follow on ; but with 

 the exception of Abigail and Fickle and the head 

 hounds are carrying, we hear little of the pack. 



Beckford goes on with : ^' Now hastes the 

 whipper-in to the other side of the covert ; he is 

 right unless he head the fox." That sentence is 

 quite the old sportsman. ^' It is right, if it is not 

 wrong. . . . Listen ! the hounds have turned. They 

 are now in two parts ; the fox has been headed 

 back, or they have changed at last. Now, my lad, 

 mind the huntsman's holloa, and stop to those 

 hounds he encourages. He is right ! That doubt- 

 less is the hunted fox ; now they are off again. . . . 

 Still we press too closely on the hounds ! Hunts- 

 man, stand still ! As yet they want you not. 

 How admirably they spread I How wide they 

 cast ! Is there a single hound that does not 



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