136 . FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



us. He saw no pursuit and knew of no danger till he woke to 

 the roar of the torrent pouring down upon him. In sheer 

 amazement he waits till a bare twenty yards divides him from 

 their noisy throats, when, seeing that these are no playful 

 pariahs with whom to trifle or temporise, he sticks his con- 

 temptible brush out behind him, and lays his gaunt muscular 

 form desperately along the sward. Bat he is playing a down- 

 hill game now in its fullest sense. Those great leathering 

 giants that have been used to stretch over the wide Quorn 

 pastures can cover more ground in their stride than he can ; 

 and though, with his wondrous back and loins., he could leave 

 them easily up a hillside, he has to strain every nerve and 

 sinew now to keep clear of their hungry jaws. Oh, that he had 

 not done such justice to the good grey horse that Providence 

 or the Madras Carrying Company had put in his way ! How 

 little had he realised, as he whetted his fangs over those 

 succulent ribs, that he was preparing himself to point the moral 

 and adorn a tale of self-indulgence. 



No occasion for cheering them on, or giving a signal to your 

 field now ; but we give the former a scream and the latter a 

 blast as we settle down to scurry our very fastest in pursuit. 

 Ah, worshipful masters of England, this country has its advan- 

 tages after all ! No riding over hounds when they are running 

 here ! No scuttling forward to gates, and cutting off the pack 

 as they turn under a hedgerow ! Not the wildest citizen that 

 ever migrated to Melton, to stick one more thorn into the 

 already lacerated sides of Firr or Gillard, could work much 

 mischief here. There is always a scent; and, as hounds most 

 often start close at their game, it is all that the stoutest of 

 Waler blood, sent along by the keenest and youngest of spurs, 

 can do to live with them. Fences there are none, and this 

 may be an advantage too, though few of us would be ingenuous 

 enough to say so as honestly as did a youthful planter after our 

 gallop to-day. " Dear me," quoth he, " this is my last day's 

 hunting, for I'm off to England to-morrow ! " " But you'll see 

 ten times better hunting there," we answered b}' way of re- 



