SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 329 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



** But reynard at last feels his strength giving way ; 

 The hounds too, he hears, are close at his heels ; 

 His eyesight grows dim, 

 There's a sinking within, 

 "Which tells him too plainly, he's ate his last meal." 



The Fox Chase, 



Hunting run — A pulling horse — The hit of luck — Jem to the fore — 

 Exchange no robbery — A new way of stopping earths — Fast and 

 furious — Pounding in a ditch — Slow and sure — Jem lias it all to 

 himself. 



It is not very agreeable intelligence on a good 

 scenting day to be told that your fox is a couple of 

 miles ahead of you. What must it be, then, on a 

 bad one ? With the present system further pursuit 

 of him under such circumstances must be aban- 

 doned, and the order at once given to draw for a 

 fresh one, in the hope of No. 2 proving more 

 odoriferous than No. 1 ; and the majority of hunt- 

 ing men — rather we should say riding men — in these 

 fast days, prefer ten minutes' burst, best pace, to a 

 good hunting run of an hour and forty. We are 

 old-fashioned enough to dehght in seeing the instinct 

 and sagacity of the hound displayed, rather than his 

 speed only ; and, therefore, to follow Will Headman 

 and his pack, now committed to the arduous task of 

 trying to catch a good fox with a forbidding scent. 

 The big woods are left behind, and the fox, having 

 got a start, stretches boldly away over the open 

 country. There is no merry cry of hounds, 



