24 SKETCHES IN THE HUNTING FIELD. 



rather glad to have Kitty with us, for a pretty girl 

 cantering along the grass by the roadside contributes 

 a pleasant feature to that essentially English scene, 

 the "Way to the Meet," and adds greatly, moreover, 

 to the spectacle of the covert-side, always supposing 

 that her nose does not become too red nor her cheeks 

 too blue from the effects of an unflattering northerly 

 wind. 



One day, however, when Kitty, with her guide, 

 philosopher, and friend, was scouring the plain in a 

 very gentle and unambitious manner, and when he, 

 indeed, was trotting gently down the fence to look for 

 the gate, young Scatterly on one of the big Irish horses 

 with which he is always going to win a steeplechase 

 came thundering past, straight to the comfortable jump 

 before him, a thinnish moderate-sized hedge, with a 

 ditch on the landing-side. 



Kitty certainly did not mean to go, but her old 

 hunter did. Fired by the spirit of emulation, and re- 

 membering old days when he was not condemned to 

 the society of an obese cob, but kept his place not far 

 from the best of them, his usual placability of tempera- 

 ment was for the moment upset ; so, wheeling round, he 

 jumped to the side of Scatterly's horse, and galloped on 

 with him. 



"My dear! my dear! stop him!" her temporary 

 guardian cried out, while his cob looked on with wonder 

 and disdain at his late companion's evident desire to 

 make quite unnecessary exertions for his own private 



