182 FOX-HOUXDS. 



the pack out in a minute from the far end of the covert ; 

 and we were soon going, holding hard, over a newly- 

 ploughed field, looking out sharp for the next open gate ; 

 but it is at the wrong corner, and by the time we have 

 reached the middle of fifty acres, a young farmer in 

 scai4et, sitting upright as a dart, showed the way over 

 a new rail in the middle of a six-foot quickset. Our 

 nag, "Leicestershire," needs no spurring, but takes it 

 pleasantly, with a hop, skip, and jump ; and by the time 

 we had settled into the pace on the other side, the 

 senior on the four-year-old was alongside, crying, " Push 

 along, sir ; push along, or they'll run clean away from 

 you. The fences are all fair on the line we're going." 

 And so they were — hedges thick, but jumpable enough, 

 yet needing a hunter for all that, especially as the big 

 fields warmed up the pace amazingly; and, as the 

 majority of the farmers out were riding young ones 

 destined for finished hunters in the pasture counties, 

 there was above an average of resolution in the style of 

 coming at the fences. The ground almost all plough, 

 naturally drained by chalk sub-subsoil, fortunately rode 

 light; but presently we passed the edge of the Wolds, 

 held on through some thin plantations over the demesne 

 grass of a squire's house, then on a bit of unreclaimed 

 heath, where a flock of sheep brought us to a few 

 minutes' check. With the help of a veteran of the 

 hunt, who had been riding well up, a cast forward set us 

 agoing again, and brought us, still running hard, away 

 from the Wolds to low ground of new inclosures, all 

 grass, fenced in by ditch and new double undeniable 

 rails. As we had a good view of the style of country 

 from a dista\ice, we though it wisest, as a stranger, 

 on a strange horse, with personally a special distaste 

 to double fences, to pull gently, and let half-a-dozen 



