THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 191 



the hack he was mounted on could get over certain fences, 

 at a certain pace, he began to find that, if he continued 

 at the pace these Meltonians were leading him over this 

 tine but choking country, he would soon be unable to leap 

 at all. He had nothing to do, then, but to pull up, and 

 endeavour to follow his guides, as Hercules did the oxen, 

 by the tracks of their horses' feet on the ground. 



All went well for the next five fields. The fences were 

 practicable, and as the distance from Melton was only 

 eight miles, our hero began to think that, from the pace 

 they had been going, he might still arrive before the fox 

 was found. But when in the middle of a very large field, 

 and in the act of descending from the highest part of it, 

 he saw what he suspected might prove to be death to all 

 his hopes. He saw, and apparently for miles right and 

 left, the valley he was about to descend into, not, in 

 poetical language 



' ' With rural dainties crown'd, 

 While opening blooms diffuse their sweets around,'' 



where nothing was to be heard but the hum of insects, the 

 melody of birds, and the wild music of the shepherd's 

 pipe ; but he saw a long and undulating line of stumpy 

 old pollarded willow-trees, which too plainly convinced 

 him that a deep brook was in his line ; and as for the hum 

 of insects, the melody of birds, and the wild music of the 

 shepherd's pipe, not a thing could he hear, animate or 

 inanimate, beyond the putfing and blowing of his half- 

 tired horse, and the sort of sucking noise his feet made as 

 he pulled them out of the furrows of this highly ridged 

 field. 



" Now, what is to be done ? " was the question he put to 

 himself, and a serious question it was ; for should he 

 not be able to get to hounds, he greatly feared that many 

 a good laugh would be had at his expense, even should 

 he escape being shown up in a caricature as "a young 

 provincial gentleman going to cover in Leicestershire. 1 ' 

 As to a bridge, or a ford, or a road, his eye looked for 

 either in vain ; and when he came down on the brook, 

 and saw where his two guides had taken it in their stroke, 

 he considered himself to be in the most trying situation in 

 which a young sportsman, similarly circumstanced, could 

 be placed. He recollected, however, that he had once 

 ridden the horse he was then on, and which had been 



