THE BEST RUN I HAVE EVER HAD 65 



scent one cursed heartily a few minutes before. 

 Pray, but you will probably not be answered. 



I did that near BaUinacura three seasons ago, 

 we walked in a semicircle for quite twenty 

 minutes, and just as I had begun to talk of some- 

 thing interesting to some as fooHsh as myself, 

 there they were racing for Bulgerton, and there 

 was only a thoroughbred horse to thank when I 

 caught them. 



But the best hunts on one's best horse, like the 

 hunt, the one of the moment is the best until he 

 fails you and reminds you that they don't breed 

 horses, or, Uke port, have deteriorated. 



One of the hunts I loved best was from Grange 

 in Major Wise's time, it was no point, we killed 

 coming into Grange again, but it was over a 

 glorious country at a nice pace and a beautiful 

 bit of hunting. Half-way through one of the 

 soldiers quartered here narrowly escaped destruc- 

 tion as his horse swerved on a bank and ran along 

 and then disappeared on the far side just when I 

 had picked a place. The mare I was riding took 

 her fences far too fast. I had a vision of someone 

 who was looking up from a ditch as she fled out 

 over him. 



The end of that hunt, though horses were tiring, 

 was as near perfection as hunting can be. Hounds 

 running hard close on their gallant but beaten 

 fox over flat green fields with big double banks at 

 which one could gallop. There was no plough, 



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