222 THE MERRY GEE-GEE 



flat. Without glasses you could not 

 detect her jump at all a short distance 

 off; her effort was so even and slight as 

 to be imperceptible. 



There's real and genuine pleasure in 

 the local hunt-race meetings all over the 

 country, where one knows each horse 

 and each rider, and the ladies want all 

 the winners finding and their fortunes 

 telling ; luncheons, minstrelsy, the popping 

 of champagne-corks, and all the parapher- 

 nalia. I should rather like to see some 

 new rule passed enabling genuine hunters 

 to have a chance in hunters' flat races, 

 as used to prevail, but which under the 

 present system are entirely devoted to race- 

 horses, and in which a Quorn or Belvoir 

 hunter would have no chance. There's 

 a private sweepstake at Croxton Park 

 every year of this nature which is most 

 popular, and always commands no end 



