THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 173 



were tied to the fox, and they soon defy the speed of 

 an Echpse to interfere with them. 



" Now the fences made skirters look blue, 

 There was no time to crane or to creep, 

 O'er the pastures like pigeons they flew, 

 And the ground rode infernally deep. 

 Oh ! my eyes, what a fall ! Are you hurt? 



No, no, sir, I thank you, are you ? 

 But who, to enjoy such a spirt. 



Would be grudging an odd rib or two." 



Hunting Song. 



Thus they continue for ten minutes; the succeeding 

 thirty are, if possible, still more enjoyable, though, 

 perhaps, less in accordance with ultrd notions of 

 pace than the burst, being a combination of running 

 and hunting with a holding scent. It is very, very 

 rarely, in the provincials (excepting, of course, par- 

 ticular parts which may equal the best hunting coun- 

 tries), that a scent, however good, will serve equally 

 over every variety of land, intersected by lanes, with 

 here and there a village, or, at least, a colony, whence 

 emanate a tide of such screams as afford the most incon- 

 testible proofs of a thorough non-acquiescence in the 

 doctrines of Malthus. But there has been nothing like 

 a check; through good or ill report, the fox has held 

 his way, has kept his head straight ; his line has laid 

 through the centre of large fields, to the detriment of 

 seeds, save where the surrounding hedge greens afford 



