THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 159 



to country sliould prevent his getting pounded, for 

 many a fox is lost, in the time consumed in effecting 

 an exit from some particularly imaccommodating, per- 

 haps impracticable, corner. But to return to the chase 

 just commenced : — the huntsman is lying well with his 

 hounds, his eye intent upon their every movement, 

 taking everything as it comes in his line. We have 

 cleared the few pastures interspersed in a plough coun- 

 try, like the green oasis of the desert, here and there 

 just enough to make hounds more sensible of the tran- 

 sition to new sown arable. The pace is suddenly dimin- 

 ished ; the sterns, which have been drooping low, are 

 raised : the heads, which have been exalted, are low- 

 ered. They will be at check in a moment : — now do not 

 seize this opportunity of making up your lee-way ; do 

 not repair the distance they have gained upon you by 

 spurring up to them on their line. It is pretty theory, 

 that of keeping your eye upon the leading hounds ; but 

 it is not every one who knows what hounds are leading, 

 even if they are near enough to distinguish ; for it is not 

 always that the first couple are at all times leading, as, 

 in the present instance, they have overshot the scent — 

 they have thrown up — they are at fault. It has been 

 twenty minutes' trimming pace ; those leading hounds 

 have flashed towards the pond in the corner, and, having 

 laved their sides, and lapped, stand, like other7yo\nig- 

 sters, doubting how to recover the effect of having gone 



add, tliat lie was followed by as many of his crew as the duty could re- 

 quire. — The records of these daring deeds do not argue much against my 

 assumption as to the pre-eminence of the " blood which will tell." 



