102 THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



Lbamikqton. We careered through the park, leaped its high fencing, 



and were soon miles away over the country. The scent was 



strong, the pace severe, and the field gradually became 

 thinner. Some had been daunted by the park palings, and 

 turning in search of a gate, were lost to both eye and ear, 

 others had thrown somersaults over the fence, and many 

 had fallen back on the side from which they leaped. 



Now the practiced riders showed their craft, contending 

 for the post of honour. Each choosing his line, pursued it 

 as straight as the crow flies, gathering his horse up as he 

 approached a dangerous fence with yawning ditch beyond, 

 and aiding him in his leap by a timely lift of the hand, 

 saving him over heavy ground, urging over the more elastic 

 turf, selecting with a quick eye the spot for a leap and 

 charging the spot chosen with unfaltering nerve. 



So sped those who were in the front rank, while the 

 country behind them, hill and valley, common and meadow, 

 were strewed with horsemen entangled in the fences, or 

 pursuing in hopes of coming up during a check. 



Some knowing old fellows, crafty sportsmen, bold riders 

 in their day, but now become too bulky for the field, well 

 judging the course the fox would take, had cut off through 

 lanes and by-ways, atid appeared in front of us by a wood 

 in which they viewed the fox take covert. Huntsmen and 

 hounds penetrated to dislodge him. 



In the meantime, manyTgentlemen riding into the court- 

 yard of an old country seat hard by delivered their horses 

 to attending stableboys while buxom maids flew to and 

 fro from the servants' hall with foaming tankards of ale, 

 receiving half-crowns andcompliments from the bespattered 

 gentlemen, which conjured roses to their cheeks in harmony 

 with the flush excited by the^ chase over the faces of the 

 hunters. 



" Yoi-oik ! stole away !" reaches to the court-yard. Maids 

 and tankards fly in all directions, and the gentlemen hastily 

 mounting, scour into the open country. 



The fox was a sturdy one. Some peasants^had seen him 

 steal from the wood with his brush still .undrooping, and 

 the mettle both of horse and hound were now : put to the 

 test. As the run continued, 'many wearied steeds began to 

 fall short in their leaps, and muddy ditches were explored 

 by horse and rider. Near by me a gallant'animalfunable 

 from exhaustion to cover his leap, [fell with his breast upon 

 a pleached hedge. A stake pierced him to the heart and 

 broke. His rider, unconscious, in his ardour of what had 

 happened, would have spurred him on as he reeled back 

 from the hedge, but another moment and^the noble animal 

 sank heavily on the field, the blood pouring from the 

 wound, and with a low moan expired. 



The horses 2were. now, done, the chase became slow and 

 toilsome, and the brave fox gaining another covert, took to 



