114 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



so Carter set down the first look of the thing that day as in his 

 favour. Round the cover the old fox went, finding that it 

 would not do to break with the hounds with such a scent at his 

 brush ; he accordingly played the pack in the thick quarters of 

 the wood, till the ground was foiled, and he could get an oppor- 

 tunity, during a check, to slip away. The chance came, and off 

 he went, precisely fence by fence, field by field, the usual line. 

 " Oh ! " but George thought, when the hounds came to his 

 holloa and horn with a swing, as if they knew they could take 

 up his line in a gallop, " if the scent will but hold." Hold it 

 did ; for to Cartels delight, as the hounds swept out with their 

 heads up, crash went every mouth at once, and away they flew, 

 like pigeons, for Bromham. George shook himself in the saddle, 

 and flew away with them, and, with scarcely a check, the burst 

 lasted to the river at Clapham turnpike. No hesitation there, 

 George saw the water fly, as the leading hounds jumped as far 

 in as they could spring, and, speaking to it as they swam, the 

 pack scrambled up the opposite bank, and, with no time to 

 shake themselves, flew over the road, and up the rise to Clapham 

 Park, like receding mops. George was at Clapham Park well 

 with them, his heart in his mouth again, in dread of a change of 

 foxes; but every quarter of the cover was sought in vain, so 

 away the fox went, to look for a change in the Twin Woods. 

 Here he sought to shift the work, as usual ; but these woods 

 also were free from change, and George knew that the hounds 

 were running to kill, for the old hounds pressed forward, and 

 flashed into the rides, as they endeavoured to head the cry for 

 a view at him, he turned so short. Every instant George 

 thought the fox was his own : the fox found he must die, if he 

 stayed in cover ; so, as a last effort, he broke again, with the 

 hounds at his brush, and tumbled into a little drain under a 

 gateway a few fields from the wood, and close to a farm-yard. 

 George pulled off his cap, wiped his face, and called for spade 

 and pick -axe. A man unused to fox-hunting would have 

 thought that these aids were sent for to bury the animal, for 

 every one deemed him as good as dead ; the pick-axe and shovel 



