92 HOUND AND HORN 



When ultimately we got cooled" down and re- 

 adjusted, and, having appointed two whips for the 

 day, were proceeding to the pre-arranged draw, we 

 met him coming back with his four couples. I could 

 see him glancing at my saddle as if expecting to 

 find a mask there, and from his triumphant expression 

 I half expected to see one dangling from his. He 

 reported having run over a tremendous big country, 

 and having made a five to six mile point (extended 

 in the saddle-room that night, for the benefit of the 

 convalescing grooms, to ten miles, but in reality proved 

 to be one and a half), and implying the exercise of 

 great cunning and desperate racing — (on old '' Safety") 

 he cut in before them and stopped them. 



Subsequent proceedings kept us on the go all day 

 till darkness overtook us, for we were fortunate in 

 being blessed with a good scent that lasted, and 

 enabled the hounds to run, if not as fast, at least 

 as unerringly at 3 P.M. as they did at 10.30 A.M. 



After trying a considerable extent of country, we 

 got on to a fox who, with a ten minutes' start, took 

 us to the hills and down the adjoining valley for 

 a short distance, and attempting to climb the hill 

 on the return journey, failed, and was pulled down 

 in the open in twenty-five minutes. 



The shooting tenant of the ground then piloted 

 us to a thick bracken bed where he had often seen 

 a fox that used to lie close to his puzzled setters, 

 and sure enough he was there to-day, and gave a 

 pretty find as he jumped up in the middle of and 

 twisted through the hounds, one or two actually 

 snapping at him. This fox gave a good deal of 

 trouble, for being blown in the first ten minutes' 



