36 HORSES 



The country now assumes a different aspect, for 

 the estate we are crossing is in the owner's hands, 

 and is a legacy from a sequence of bad tenants. 

 A year or two ago it was under the plough, but 

 now a thin covering of wiry twitch-grass has spread 

 over the surface, and, as far as hunting is con- 

 cerned, is not a bad substitute for turf. No ditches 

 guard the straggling, ill-kempt hedges, which have 

 many weak places, and you may ride at them with 

 the fullest confidence. 



For five or six fields hounds run fast over this 

 sort of country, and you are just able to keep with 

 them, though the pony is fast tiring, and his heaving 

 sides tell you that a halt will soon be advisable. 

 Make the most of your precious moments, though 

 you will only realise in dreams for many days to 

 come the period of divine ecstasy through which 

 you have passed. There is a limit to the apprecia- 

 tion of any pleasure, and the cup is brimming now, 

 though it will not run to waste, but will be 

 absorbed by your brain ; and you will live again 

 through the incidents of the run. 



The sun is gaining power, and a bare stubble- 

 field brings the pack to their noses. Even to your 

 inexperienced eye a crisis has been reached, and 

 a little human intelligence will be required to 

 assist hounds in their difficulty, but fortunately at 

 this moment the huntsman and first whip appear. 



What had happened to them ? The whip had 

 been on the farther side of the wood and the hunts- 

 man had taken a fall in galloping down a boggy 



