SCATTERING THE GLOOM. 287 



out betraying himself. I never saw situation grasped and 

 rectified quicker. With one short sharp chirp the huntsman 

 checks the lady pack in their forward cast ; his men pop them 

 as it were into his very pocket, and without noise, hurry, or con- 

 fusion they are righted and going again in ten seconds. In the 

 next few minutes is concentrated, perhaps, the very kernel of 

 the fun. The darkness is palpable ; the pace is the same ; while 

 the fences are problematical and close coming. The very next 

 jump has apparently no ending. We drop, not into agravelpit, 

 but into space : and, maddened with anxiety, find ourselves 

 galloping hard down a white-frosted hill side. Before we know it, 

 we are over a little brook that had nearly swallowed us unawares : 

 and now we are in the wake of half a dozen men helping each 

 other to keep touch of the pack. Now one, now another, 

 catches a glimpse. All are riding with heads bent forward, and 

 best ear to the front straining their eyes and catching each 

 note dodging hither and thither as fences offer easiest (for this 

 is no country to trifle with). One makes it possible here, 

 another there and somehow they hover on the edge of the pack, 

 as it would never be possible, or even fair, in daylight. A true 

 hunter is needed for now it is a broad stake-and-bound, now a 

 creep. Now into a plantation and out, by guidance of a chance 

 shepherd ; and now a gorse covert looms forth. Win wick 

 Warren. Twenty-two minutes. (You have taken longer than 

 this, Mr. Brooksby, to spell out your horseshoe though the red 

 ground was hard galloping all the way.) The line holds on, the 

 fog thickens rather than slackens, the pace has already told 

 and in an open stubble field ten minutes further, they are on 

 to him openly and fairly. As pretty a kill and as joysome a 

 scurry as we shall see this year. Slacken your girths and be 

 glad. 



This is life, and will savour the rest. Foxhunting will help 

 us through our time. 



