240 GOOD SPORT 



comfortable quarters. A turn in covert results in 

 a few minutes of uncertainty, for if he should break 

 back for the neighbouring Buckminster Plantations 

 little in the way of sensational sport will result. 

 Horrible thought ! he may try ringing tactics once 

 too often, and with sixteen and a half couple close 

 at him in the undergrowth he must get chopped. 

 The pack come to the north corner, and two couple 

 flash out on the grass, then all goes quiet, and 

 some opinion they have killed him. It must have 

 been a near thing, but he is on his own ground clever 

 enough to slip back, and, finding covert too hot to 

 hold him, a ringing view halloa from the north- 

 east corner proclaims him away ! Instantly every 

 horse seems to be electrified; there is a whirlpool 

 of ardent spirits striving to get a start, but held up 

 by the master's voice of authority, " Hold hard ! 

 pray, h-o-l-d h-a-r-d ! don't go on ! " CapelTs horn 

 rings out, and to it fly the eager pack, streaming 

 away with a rippling, chiming cry that tells of a 

 scent. It is on these occasions that the top men of 

 the hunt suddenly appear on the scene in their 

 accustomed place with hounds, as though they had 

 dropped from the clouds ! 



For the rest of us, filtering through the gateway 

 or thrusting through the gap in the tall fence on 

 the left, it is a tortuous proceeding, attended with 

 considerable danger, for they say that the worst 

 that could happen in a battle charge was to be 

 rubbed off 3^our horse by companions in arms. 

 Quickness and decision are the salient points of a 

 successful Leicestershire leader, whom we know so 

 well in the distance " cantering alongside the lead- 

 ing dog," whilst our division is " riding hell for 

 leather," galloping a great deal faster and losing 

 ground all the way. In the first few fields of rough 



