THE STAVERTOX RUN. 323 



the finish of what is called " a good run " and which may 

 mean twenty miles' galloping. Since the above was written, 

 it has come to my knowledge that six horses died after this 

 great run from Staverton ; and, further, I learn that our fox 

 managed his escape by spending the night in a drain under the 

 farm buildings above mentioned. Next morning he was seen 

 to issue forth, weary but well, and ready, I trust, to run before 

 hounds when another season comes round. 



The alternative of the next day was Liverpool. I cannot 

 help thinking that if any of the hard men of the Pytchley were 

 there to see the open ditches and five-foot fences of Aintree, 

 and to witness them flown like hurdles by twenty horses in a 

 cluster, they will scorn more than ever our pigmy obstacles 

 and, in fact, Northamptonshire won't be big enough for them. 

 As a hunting man, I make bold to say that no field of horse- 

 men in England would have faced such fences with hounds 

 let them be running never so madly. 



I must be pardoned for adding a scrap that has no bearing 

 upon the day last mentioned but a recent and somewhat 

 awful contretemps that might, in the absence of due pre- 

 cautions, easily befall any of us who are given to the harmless 

 cigar. A sportsman fell (this at least was nothing unusual) and 

 nobody paid much heed to the commonplace casualty beyond 

 seeing that his horse was duly caught and registered. But as 

 the man rose, he came up, as Mephistopheles from a stage 

 floor, not only amid odour of sulphur and brimstone, but with 

 a tangible halo of thick blue smoke. He was known to be 

 a sober, discreet, and accountable member of society. Spon- 

 taneous combustion could have nothing to do with the eruption, 

 any more than D. T. could be held accountable for the frenzied 

 vagaries he now indulged in. He cast himself on the ground, 

 he wallowed in the mud, he rolled in the wet ditch, like a 

 creature insane. Fetch him a " red drink " was a farmer's 

 notion. Brandy was a friend's ready recipe. But the poor 



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