BREAKING COYEE. 



" nOLD hard, gcutlcmcu, pray hold hard ! " exclaims the master, as his hounds biuy 

 themselves in the gorse, and the field shows an inclination to surround it on every side. 

 The caution is by no means unnecessary, for a lot of young ones are akeady creej^ing 

 forward for a start, each prepared to go the instant the fox shows himself, with not 

 the slightest intention of waiting for the hounds. Wait for hounds indeed ! not 

 they. Does not Whyte-Melville say "hounds are a bore"? and is there not a legend 

 concerning a noble lord, who retm-ucd to Melton, and said he should have had a capital 



day's sport, had not the d hounds boon continually in the way? No, they can do 



nothing so dead slow as wait for hounds, but once let the fox show himself, and each 

 will catch his horse by the head, send in the spiu-s, and forthwith proceed with a will to 

 the task of cutting down his dear friend Tom, Jack, or Ilarry, as the case may be ; 

 unless liis horse, having the true interests of sport at heart, should put him down at the 

 fii'st fence. Well may the master say, "hold hard," when he knows the sort of men he 

 has to deal with, and that the fox, once headed, will in all probability be turned into the 

 hounds' mouths, and chopped ; thus rendering the gorse, in their best vale country, null 

 and void for the day. We will suppose that his remonstrance is attended to, and the 

 field collected in the spot least likely to cause mischief. Will, the first whip, canters 

 away to the back of a thick blackthorn hedge, and there posts himself, immovable as a 

 statue. Save an occasional cheer from the master, aU is now silent as death ; he is wind- 

 ing his horse about a narrow track in the gorse, occasionally jumping over a bough that 

 hangs across his path and interferes with his progress ; not a hound is visible for several 

 minutes, then a stern or two may be seen waving above the evergreen in some thinner 

 spot. 



The covert is a small one, yet so thick that it occupies a long time in drawing, and, 

 though invisible, the pack are spread over it like sheeji in a pastui'e, each forcing and 

 tearing his way through the dense mass of stems and thorns. At length the field 

 become impatient, and a few venture to shift theii- quarters, but are quickly brought to a 

 sense of then delinquency by an exclamation more expressive than polite. Another 

 interval of silence, then one hound speaks, another and another follow suit, and at length 

 the fox is found. But a fox found and a fox gone away are not exactly the same thing, 

 and we must yet exercise om* patience for awhile. Strange as it may seem, though the 

 gorse is but afew acres in extent, and there are, at least, eighteen couple of hoimds working 

 in it, the fox continues to elude all their eftbrts without as yet quitting his stronghold. 

 In fact, where they have to force themselves tlu'oughthe stems with difiiculty, he creeps 

 beneath Nvith the greatest ease, and, wise in his generation, runs foil, and though himself 

 himted, hunts the pack. Instinct tells him that the scent is good, and did he try conclusions 

 at once with them over the open, twenty minxites would seal his fate. But even to him 

 on a mild morning, the close covert becomes somewhat oppressive, so going out at the 

 far corner, thoiigh he has no intention as yet of leaving it, he runs up the side, and for a 

 few moments enjoys the cool breeze. Though he knows it not, the eye of his enemy 

 Will is on him all tlie time. Very silently and quietly he is noting his shape, make, size, 

 and colour, so that during any part of the chase, he may again be able to recognise him. 

 But he does not holloa, he laiows his business far too well for that; he knows that as yet 



I 



