66 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



the Hunt had already done so ; and if the two or three who 

 still persevered were rewarded with anything approaching a 

 run they fully deserved it. 



Dec. 12th, 1882. Frost. After a dozen winters' penmanship 

 on the same congenial subject, there is at least no novelty in 

 heading a hunting letter thus in the midst of snow and frost. 

 Whether the common trial is easier to bear, the imprisonment 

 less irksome, depends, with all of us conversely upon how the 

 individual has stood wear- and -tear, and, directly, how the 

 ordeal finds him circumstanced at the moment. Some tempera- 

 ments are like old silver bright and fresh to the end. Others 

 are plated with a thin veneer, that stands no knocking about, 

 before laying bare the unsuitable metal within. The latter 

 may stand a certain number of seasons, and even glitter quite 

 as smartly as the solid material ; but it is not made for rough- 

 and-tumble. Thus, if nerve and zest show any signs of wear 

 and decay, it is astounding to mark the placidity with which 

 the once keen foxhunter will accept the inevitable, and resign 

 himself to a frost. He falls back at once with absolute pleasure 

 upon a store of occupation which has accumulated while he 

 wasted day after day in the pursuit of a mere duty at the 

 covertside. On the other hand, it is not to be expected of the 

 most impressionable disposition that any man, more than a 

 two-season hunter, or dependent upon regimental first or second 

 leave, should succumb to a frost as if such a calamity had been 

 reserved only for the being born under an unlucky star. Most 

 of us have something else to do or make pretence of having. 

 If it be pleasant, here's the chance. If distasteful, let us get it 

 over. 



Our horses have done so little real work as yet, that the 

 stoppage is not likely to be welcomed as a benefit to any 

 stable unless that stable be in a state of transition, or only 

 very newly formed. The demand for hunters has been so 

 strained and universal during the past two months, that to fill 



