WITH HORSE AND HOUND ON THE VELDT 



NE glorious October 

 evening, I left the dust 

 and bustle of the golden 

 city of Johannesburg 

 behind me and rode 

 along Bezutenhuits 



Valley, for the double 

 purpose of paying a 

 visit of inspection to the 

 then recently imported 

 pack of English fox- 

 hounds, and of spending 

 the night at the kennels. At the invitation of the 

 M.F.H., I had arranged to act the part of honorary 

 whipper-in next day, when the hounds were to meet at 

 the Half-way Hotel, which is situate about midway 

 between Johannesburg and Pretoria, on the old coach 

 road. 



I had ridden to within a mile of my destination when 

 suddenly my ears were gladdened by a sound sweet as a 

 peal of church bells, chiming across a wide river, now 

 swelling, now falling in volume, until, softening and 

 softening gradually lower and lower, the melody died 

 away, and deathlike silence again reigned over that 



vast expanse of undulated veldt. It was the " singing " 



176 



