172 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



to convey an idea of the average sport wliicli may be 

 obtained with a good pack of hounds in a provincial 

 country, straight, from nine to twelve miles in distance ; 

 time, from fifty-five minutes to an hour and ten minutes, 

 supposing the scene of action to differ as widely as pos- 

 sible from the metropolitan districts. Had it been laid 

 in the most favourable parts, we must have given the 

 hounds credit for completely beating off all but a very 

 chosen few, in the burst ; and also for having had time 

 to make their own cast, should they overrun or lose the 

 scent by casualty — before the huntsman could come up 

 to interfere with them. I am supposing, of course, a 

 really good scent, when hounds will beat the best horse 

 that ever was foaled. In this case, the huntsman (having 

 been, if he has kept his proper place, as forward as any 

 one could be, if not quite first) will be able to see how 

 far they carry the scent ; and, in rendering his assist- 

 ance, will not be tied down to precisely the same line of 

 conduct which he was bound to pursue over a country 

 where patience is his best auxiliary. There hounds may 

 be working on the line, over soil which will not carry a 

 scent, serving for a continuation of the pace which they 

 have gone over the intervening patches of grass and 

 hedge greens ; it would be the height of folly to lift them 

 as often as they come to stooping ; there the whole 

 chase consists in hunting and running by tarns, varying 

 according to the luck of the fox's line ; but, in the 

 deeper vale, such as that between Bramingham and 

 Woburn, Hexton and PuUox Hill, Wrest Park, or any 



