BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



examines it with his nose, goes on to a postern ; examines that 

 also, and then another and another ; while I perceive afar, 

 projecting from every cave's mouth, the red and green end of 

 a new fir-faggot. Ah Reinecke ! fallen is thy conceit, and 

 fallen thy tail therewith. Thou hast worse foes to deal with 

 than Bruin the bear, or Isegrim the wolf, or any foolish brute 

 whom thy great ancestor outwitted. Man, the many-coun- 

 selled, has been beforehand with thee ; and the earths are 

 stopped. 



' One moment he sits down to meditate, and scratches 

 those trusty counsellors, his ears, as if he would tear them off, 

 " revolving swift thoughts in a crafty mind." He has settled 

 it now. He is up and off — and at what a pace ! Out of the 

 way. Fauns and Hamadryads, if any be left in the forest. 

 What a pace ! And with what a grace beside ! 



' Oh Reinecke, beautiful thou art, of a surety, in spite of 

 thy great naughtiness. Art thou some fallen spirit, doomed 

 to be hunted for thy sins in this life, and in some future life 

 rewarded for thy swiftness, and grace, and cunning by being 

 made a very messenger of the immortals ? Who knows ? 

 Not I. I am rising fast to Pistol's vein. Shall I ejaculate ? 

 Shall I notify ? Shall I waken the echoes ? Shall I break 

 the grand silence by that scream which the vulgar view-halloo 

 call ? It is needless ; for louder and louder every moment 

 swells up a sound which makes my heart leap into my mouth, 

 and my mare into the air. . . . 



' Music ? Well-beloved soul of HuUah, would that thou 

 wert here this day, and not in St. Martin's Hall, to hear that 

 chorus, as it pours round the fir-stems, rings against the roof 

 above, shatters up into a hundred echoes, till the air is live 

 with sound ! You love Madrigals, or whatever Weelkes, or 

 Wilbye, or Orlando Gibbons sang of old. So do I. Theirs is 

 music fit for men : worthy of the age of heroes, of Drake and 

 Raleigh, Spenser and Shakspeare ; but oh, that you could hear 

 this madrigal ! If you must have " four parts," then there 

 they are. Deep-mouthed bass, rolling along the ground ; 



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