198 THE HUXTING-FIELD. 



primed and collected; you cannot in usual cases, 

 if you do tliis, go too fast at water/^ 



My friend and myself went to next day's fix- 

 ture. On tlie hounds being thrown into a cover, 

 ^' Come along/' said I, " we will get in/' and, 

 opening a bridle- gate, I walked my horse a hun- 

 dred yards up a ride. '' Let us stop here," said 

 I, " till the hounds have drawn past us ; we can 

 then take a ride to the left, that runs up the 

 middle of the cover." 



" Why," said my friend, " do you get into this 

 cover, when the last time we were out you re- 

 mained outside all the time the hounds w^ere 

 drawing and w^ere running their fox ? " 



" For several reasons," said I, " which I dare 

 say I shall have time to explain. The cover 

 where we found our last fox was not more than 

 perhaps twenty acres; it is so thick that more 

 time would be lost in getting half-way through it 

 than in making its whole circuit, if we had wanted 

 to do so. From its small size, whichever way a 

 fox broke, we could hear of it, and could get 

 round by the time the hounds could get out of 

 cover : from that part of the country there is no 

 particular point that foxes, in a general way, 

 make to; so they are influenced in that particular 

 by circumstances : we w^ere down wind, so, unless 

 we had found a fox who had come from some 

 distant country, there was little chance of his 



