96 A HUNTING CATECHISM 



lie was observed he has at once struggled on far 

 into the hole. I have repeatedly, too, known 

 a fox just save his brush by dashing into a small 

 hole, or drain, and in a few minutes dash out 

 again, even while we were still there, from 

 finding he was suffocating from want of air. 



A verification of Sir Charles's theory often 

 recurs to my mind, though it is, alas ! thirty 

 years ago since the run took place. It was one 

 of those mornings when the scent serves so well 

 the hounds race as if they were in view, and a 

 fox never gets a chance of getting his second 

 wind if the pack get away close behind his brush. 

 I happened to be riding Kettleholder, a horse 

 that had been heavily backed for the Cambridge- 

 shire, and also for the Hunt Cup at Ascot, and 

 therefore possessed of great speed, whilst he was 

 an excellent and very sure fencer. With such a 

 horse to ride, and grass all the way, and with no 

 fear of " the dreaded wire " in those halcyon 

 days, it mattered little how fast the hounds went, 

 and when after some fifteen minutes we jumped 

 into a large grass field at the further end of 

 which stretched a long belt of wood, fringing the 

 bank of a river, the fox was barely half way 

 across, straining every nerve to reach the haven 

 that lay in front. Though the hounds did not 

 actually see the fox, they were running as fast as 

 if they did so, and it was an interesting problem 

 whether they would reach him or not before he 

 could gain the wood ; but he managed to struggle 

 safely into it, the chorus of the pack kept up for 

 fifty yards or so as they dashed through the 

 brush-wood, and then there was sudden silence. 

 Mindful of the lessons I had learned from Sir 

 Charles, I galloped to the exact spot where the 



