HISTORY OF IHE YORK AND AINSTY HUNT. 



' " Then cigars were thrown down in a hurry, 

 And bridle-reins gathered up tight ; 

 Each thought we were in for a scurry, 

 And each resolved to be right." 



Just as we reached the level meadow by the Bogs, 

 out they flashed. There was no mistake about it. He 

 ' was away, and with a fair start too ; still the bitches 

 ' chime along merrily, and, despite a man on a big brown 

 'horse who will ride right in the centre of them, and 

 ' the whole field being a little eager, they settle well 

 ' down, and as we rise the hill for Askham Bryan, get 

 ' more room. Here is a stiffish hill to climb, and half- 

 ' way up is a newly-cut and plashed fence on a very 

 ' high bank, and every probability of a good ditch beyond. 

 ' Those who keep their eyes ahead twig the stopper, 

 ' and turn short to the right, through a gate and up the 

 ' hill, where there is a much more negotiable place; 

 ' while, what is termed in "Ask Mamma," "the honorary 

 ' obligation division," keep straight on. Just as the first 

 ' flight are getting well over the easier obstacle, there is 

 ' a thundering crash on the left, that tells the newly- 

 ' plashed one has performed its inission, and a man on 

 ' a brown horse is splendidly grassed. Then they held 

 ' it well over the road, and across a long pasture bending 

 'a little to the right; and as we juinp a couple of very 

 ' respectable ones, the bitches throw up in a fallow just 

 ' before us. But they are iiot pressed to hunt, and, ere 

 'the warning "Hold hard" of the first whip is scarcely 

 ' uttered, they have hit it off in a twinkling, and are 

 ' once more holding their own across some nice large 

 ' fields, slightly on the incline, and with fences that it 

 ' is by no means safe to tamper with. The field is now 

 ' scattered, every man who means business nursing his 

 'horse and riding his own line wide of the hounds; and 

 ' as they stream away we feel that we are at last in for 

 ' a good thing. Thus we run all across the Grange 

 ' Farm and by the Grange Wood, and, as we come to 

 ' a piece of teasels and a thin plantation, are very glad 

 ' to get a moment's "puff" as they check for an instant. 

 ' But little time is, however, allowed, and they are soon 

 ' at work again, though not quite so fast as before, and 



