FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND. 205 



had, on several occasions, done good service for 

 friends who had gone before me over the hedges 

 of North Warwickshire, and I went to him for 

 advice about a mount. Here I found that I had 

 made a mistake in not engaging horses in advance. 

 To get a " hunter " for the next day would be im- 

 possible, but he would do what he could for a few 

 days hence. All he could promise for the morn- 

 ing would be to lend me a horse of his own, a 

 thoroughbred mare, not up to my weight, but 

 tough and wiry, and good for any amount of 

 road-work. He kindly volunteered to arrange 

 for our going by the first train to Coventry, only 

 a couple of miles from Brinklow (it turned out 

 to be nine miles), so that we should arrive fresh 

 on the ground. At seven o'clock in the morning 

 he came to my room to say that everything was 

 arranged, and that I should find the mare at the 

 station in an hour. Swallowing a glass of milk 

 as a stay-stomach, — my usual habit, — I put my- 

 self, for the first time since the war ended, into 

 breeches and boots, and drove to the station. On 

 a turn-out stood a "horse-box," one of the insti- 



