144 THE HOKSE AND HIS RIDER. 



sent master, but of the hunt. They are on their way from 

 their kennel at Brixworth to a park at Arthingworth to 

 draw " Waterloo Gorse," which means that every man 

 who intends to come (and their name is legion) will send 

 there, not his best-looking, but, what is infinitely better, 

 that which he knows to be " his best horse," simply 

 because the covert of Waterloo not only usually holds a 

 good fox, but because it is encircled by very large grass- 

 fields, enlivened in every direction by the severest fences 

 in Northamptonshire. See how quietly along every high- 

 road, bye-road, and footpath, horses and riders, of various 

 sizes and sorts, walking, jogging, or gently trotting, are 

 converging towards a central point ! Schoolboys are 

 coming to see the start on ponies ; farmers on clever 

 nags ; others on young horses of great price ; neatly- 

 dressed grooms, some heavy and some light, are riding, or 

 riding and leading, horses magnificent in shape and breed- 

 ing, in the most beautiful condition, all as clean and well- 

 appointed as if they had been prepared to do miserable 

 penance in Rotten Row. And are all these noble and 

 ignoble animals beneath us going to the hunt ? Yes, 

 and many more that we cannot see. Look at those 

 straight streams of white steam that through green fields 

 are concentrating from north, south, east, and west upon 

 Market Harborough, from Leicester, from Northampton, 

 from Stamford, and from Rugby denoting trains that, 



