216 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



scarcely joined the sportsman who had given the 

 halloo before the hounds came np, and passed us 

 like shadows. 



" Come along," said this excellent sportsman, 

 who only joined these hounds when he could 

 not get four days a week with the hunt he be- 

 longed to, — " Come along, Ave shall just do the 

 trick." 



" ' Now/ quoted I — 



— * Contract,' says Dick ; 



'These d d Quornites shall now see the trick.' " 



Slipping off, as we had by good luck done, and 

 the hounds going like demons let loose, it was no 

 wonder we were not caught by the field, for this 

 pack, riotous as it was, consisted of as fine chace 

 hounds as any in the kingdom ; the fault was in 

 their management. In a general sense of the 

 term all hounds are good enough if the men who 

 hunt them are good enough also. Charley had 

 been so hallooM, headed, and badgered in covert, 

 that he Avas half frightened to death before he 

 really could break; but he gave us twenty minutes 

 of as fast a thing as I ever saw. They ran into 

 him in a large field. 



" We^ll give them a cheer," said our pilot, " and 

 than I shall be off, before we hear observations that 

 you know," said he, looking towards me, "may not 



be pleasant ; for I dare say S Avill not be in 



the most amiable of tempers." 



