JOHN BOOTH, M.F.H. 201 



apprehension, double posts and rails, very stiff too, looming 

 in front, and the Master was just going for them. His 

 big horse, clever as a cat, nipped in and out with the 

 greatest safety. 



I looked wistfully at the hedge which ran down into the 

 field below, to see if by any chance it was more easily 

 negotiable, but it was an ancient and absolutely impervious 

 bullfinch. These rails, with a fifteen-feet roll down one 

 side or the other, if you fell, were the only possible place 

 of egress. So I had just to trust to Providence for 

 Longbow was not an accomplished jumper of cramped 

 places I cantered quietly up to the objectionable object, 

 and the result was all right : not what one might call a 

 " fluent " performance, as there was a stop short, a bounce 

 up and down, a stop and another bounce : then the other 

 side, and a descent of the embankment after the Master, 

 who was bustling along more eagerly than ever. A glance 

 back to see the Whip safely over ? and then away. 



In a few moments \ve saw hounds once more and were 

 soon with them : but the field was nowhere visible, nor 

 were they ever visible so long as we three were within sight 

 of those rails on the embankment. 



It turned out they had all been hopelessly pounded, as 

 the Master well knew they would be. 



The big weight-carrier still forced the pace, and my good 

 horse could not gain an inch on him. The Whip was now 

 dropping astern. On we went. What a lathering and 

 soaping of reins there was ! There was also that awkward 

 feeling of having nothing to spare at the fences, and I 

 even began to think I should have to finish the run on 

 foot as Longbow pecked badly on, landing over a small 

 stake and bound. What a man that John Booth was ! 



Newton House was not far off now, and surely to 

 goodness this could not last much longer. Ha ! The 

 Master had viewed him and was cramming forward with a 

 final spurt. " Yonder he goes ! " I, too, saw him plodding 

 along dead beat, only a field in front of hounds : he dis- 

 appeared through a hedge ; now hounds were after him ; 



