MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 179 



spective of circumstances he paid a tribute to his late master, 

 and informed his audience of the exact number of puppy 

 shows he had attended and the blow it was to him when his 

 accident precluded his carrying the horn any longer if re- 

 quired. Then his eyes became fixed on Mrs. Dickinson, and 

 there was the same expression of keenness in them that 

 there had wont to be when in time past he had gauged the 

 progress of events by the hounds which were running at the 

 head of the pack. 



" I think if the lady yonder saw a bit of fox-hunting she'd 

 alter from what she told us just now. Bricks and mortar 

 hunting and accounts in the newspapers are well in their 

 way, and are easy work because you can always catch your 

 fox. We've never been so full of blood that I've seen it 

 drippin', as she says, leastways unless a hound got a bad 

 bite before the fox was smothered by the rest. She'd find 

 hounds would get careless and slack without blood, though 

 I'm bound to say, unless you're pretty quick, it's a job to get 

 a pack to break a fox up if they're blown or can't get a drop 

 of water if the weather's close and mild ; and there are 

 hounds, good hounds too, which won't take any hand in the 

 job at all. Maybe there are folks like the lady who think 

 when you've found your fox, you goes on till you kills 

 him, but there are others who know that there are days 

 when the further you go the further you're left. I think if the 

 lady found herself down in Allington pastures with a tired 

 horse, a fiock of sheep in front and a rainstorm comin' on, 

 she'd find the chances were there'd be little croolty, as she 

 calls it, come out of that hunt ; there ain't much pleasure 

 in being through wet, and females minds it more than men. 

 I don't think the lady meant any harm," he added consolingly, 

 *' but it seems a pity she should have said what she did with- 

 out knowin' a bit more, because then — well, she wouldn't 

 have said it ! " (Laughter.) " Ladies and gentlemen, I 

 thank you." 



Miss Badsworth promptly closed the sitting with '' Suc- 

 cess to Fox-Hunting". 



12 * 



