SAINT VALENTINE. 211 



with his. His baa-lamb made his cast in the centre of one of 

 these big pastures while the huntsman was making his round 

 its outskirts. Merryman is not only a foxhunter, but, after the 

 manner of all in this happy country, very fond of the farmers. 

 So Merryman snatched the opportunity to turn shepherd, and 

 rode valiantly and good-naturedly to the rescue. But the 

 sheep kicked horribly and, moreover, looked dangerously like 

 biting. Merry man's horse had a far more vivid sense of the 

 danger of the situation than his master ; and at ten yards 

 distance testified it with forelegs outstretched and nostrils 

 dilated. From each point of the compass Merryman tried it in 

 vain. Moments were passing. Toot-toot away, away. " Hey, 

 you fellows, look after that sheep ! " and there were plenty of 

 ready sheep-lifters, for the soil wasn't safe for a ride this day. 



Where was I, when the first stroke of this parenthesis was 

 struck ? We had reached Shawell Wood, and went on. But, 

 in spite of two as clever moves as ever recovered a line, scent 

 failed after Cotesbach ; and the fox scored. 



Next the bursting of a fox and the handling of him in twenty 

 and odd minutes. Misterton Gorse a second time. A long 

 waiting, and then the usual rush (let me add, not a soul had 

 stayed at home because the lawn was frost-hardened). And we 

 blundered all of a heap (good English, please, requires a 

 leisurely pen) on to the long plantation two fields, by the 

 course, from the covert. In to scratch and out to thorn, if you 

 wished ; or, better, by way of double handgate, through the 

 same belted thicket, a hundred yards back. Hounds soon hung 

 a few seconds over plough that was dusty, and discreditable to 

 February. Then they raced over the old proper pastures to 

 Stanford Hall. If anybody pressed them now, let him enter 

 his mount forthwith for the Hunt Cup of Rugby, March 8th. 

 Fifteen minutes brought hounds up to their fox at the Icehouse 

 Spinney. In seven minutes more they were heaped in a 

 scrambling mass. Brief it had been ; but " the right sort " for 

 a grass country, while it lasted. 



p 2 



