A DAY WITH THE DUKE 71 



hounds, to know and see what they were doing, 

 and to save her horse as much as possible. All 

 she knew she had learnt with the Forest fox-hounds, 

 and I was distinctly disappointed to hear that though 

 she had held her own well in the morning, she had 

 not been quite *' in it " in the afternoon. 



"It was a real nice day's sport, my Uncle," she 

 said. " Hounds did not get a good start from Cotley 

 gorse. They hunted the best part of two hours, 

 and were kept busy all the time; it was a ringing 

 hunt, but they took us over some nice country ; never 

 fast, but always kept moving on. They ran by 

 Catshawhill, Friarshaw Moor, and the Fans, and 

 crossed the river twice, at the Lowlynn ford and 

 again higher up. Anyhow, ^Nugget' and I had enough 

 to do, and I was not sorry when they ran into the fox 

 at Sandymill, five miles from where they found him." 



The gallant Major must be catalogued in the class 

 along with those who hunt to ride. An undeniably 

 fine horseman, with good nerve and judgment, he 

 was generally well mounted, and prominently in front. 

 But he was handicapped with short sight that pre- 

 vented him from seeing hounds cutting out the work 

 in a close country, and with shorter temper that came 

 to the front when he lost his place and fell back. 

 In fact, he liked to be first or nowhere. I anticipated 

 his reply to my " Now, Major Thurston ? " 



'' Well, it was very slow in the mornin', with time 

 to pick your place twice over, and lots of time to 

 get out of the way of the boys and girls. Not much 

 leppin' ; a nice fence or two now and again, but 

 nothin' that a pony couldn't jump, and hounds kept 

 checkin', and ringin', and dwellin'.' 



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