64 GOOD SPORT 



" Marnin', Mister Gillson, we 'ear you've been a 

 showin' great spaurt ! " drawled the spokesman to 

 the party. 



" Yes, oh yes ! " rephed the popular huntsman 

 briskly; " now we've come to give your side a turn. 

 Hope you are all well and keen for sport as ever ! " 



" Yees ! we likes a bit of 'untin', seems to 'liven 

 us up a bit in these quiet parts," exclaimed the 

 smiling rustic; '' but you see we don't seem to get 

 no younger, and times is bad; it's 'ard work to 

 scrat along and live." 



" Never mind about that," replied Gillson, looking 

 learned as a judge ; " get on your horse, and you'll 

 feel pounds better when you have followed me all 

 day through Witham Wood ! " 



The field on these occasions numbered many who 

 made it the excuse to hunt one day in the year, 

 and every horse in the district that would stand up 

 and look through a bridle was pressed into the 

 service of the chase. It is a sign of how times 

 have altered ; for years ago, when living in the Cottes- 

 more country, we remember day labourers would 

 throw down their tools in the field on hearing the 

 cry of hounds, and run for hours in the keenest 

 enjoyment of a hunt on foot. With the spread of 

 education and more material times, this seldom 

 happens now ; besides, as we have said, a hunt moves 

 about much faster, making it impossible. 



Riding to Corby pastures, a quick find was 

 proclaimed as hounds opened out in a full-toned 

 chorus which gave promise of a scent. A fox was 

 away on the Belvoir side of covert, and at once the 

 representatives of the two hunts singled themselves 

 out in friendly rivalry. The fun began when Mr. 

 Arthur Hutchinson from Grantham, trotting his roan 

 horse up to a particularly ugly, hog-backed stile. 



