CAPTAIN JOHN ORR-EWING 331 



Harvey having satisfied himself of the baker's 

 bond fides and natural history, started off at a hard- 

 held gallop, blowing his horn. We wanted a little 

 enlivening. The baker's roan pony leading us to 

 such purpose that his loaves kept being jerked out 

 from time to time. The baker must have forgotten 

 the cross-road, for when he came to it on he went. 

 " Hold hard ! " we all shouted, like one man, whilst 

 I added the conventional, "You're all over the line." 

 On this he pulled up so short that one wheel went 

 into the ditch and a large wicker basket flew out. 



However, it was all right, and that thick-shoul- 

 dered Cardigan hit it off and took it down the road 

 at least two hundred yards ; none of the others 

 seemed to own it. We slotted him out of the road, 

 and then hunted up to him rather nicely over a 

 fair country, through the park and young planta- 

 tions of Buscot Park, to a large piece of water (the 

 reservoir) in which Blackback was swimming serenely 

 about. In went the hounds and I began to feel 

 nervous. Bartlett's (the second whip) fine tenor of 

 entreaty and remonstrance now rent the air — it is 

 always one of his great moments — though I never 

 saw any effect produced on the hounds. 



Harvey, meanwhile, blew his horn, trotting pro- 

 minently up and down the bank, whilst all who knew 

 how cracked their whips. My Wiltshire friends were 

 quite entranced with the spectacle, and declared with 

 one accord they would have come miles to see it 

 alone. Blackback, meanwhile, was veering uncon- 

 cernedly about in the middle, very little in front 

 of Notion, who, ever since she once got a nip at a 

 deer in the Loddon, has much improved in her 

 swimming. There was no boat-house, and I was 

 beginning to be really uncomfortable, when, greatly 

 to my surprise and satisfaction, out went Blackback 

 on the far side. 



