284 



FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



and brown. I should not like to have been under any of the 

 four but am happy to think that no one of the quartette 

 crushed any other. The final check came (time, one hour 

 twenty minutes) among the very turnip fields that ended last 



year's gallop. Now our fox crept back through Guilsborough 

 Plantations; and they gave up on the bleak uplands near 

 Winwick Warren. The neighbourhood of Cold Ashby may 

 possibly account for the freezing out of scent, and for the 

 Canadian hue of men's faces. A polar climate this, and one 

 that, while saving many a fox's life, sends many a man home 

 to hot gruel and lumbago. But this is an after thought only 

 requiring to-morrow's hunt to dispel it as unfounded and 

 shameful. The memory of passing discomfort needs no 

 nursing ; and the main advantage of foxhunting is the per- 

 petuation of youth and strength. Even " old .boys " are boys 

 still while a keen pack is driving and they are in the swim. 

 'Twas a pretty, a clever, and an interesting hunt this afternoon. 



