NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



hunters and hounds stand out in clear outline upon the 

 brow and then disappear. 



We climb the hill steadily, and in turn are upon the 

 summit. The hounds are far ahead now and will soon 

 be descending again. The sun is busily licking up 

 the white mist which lies in the hollows beneath, and 

 the broad expanse of smooth, rolling down-country is 

 every minute becoming more clear to the eyes. In the 

 valley just below a great company of gulls has been 

 sheltering during the night. They are preparing to 

 descend for breakfast upon some ploughing which 

 skirts the hills to the right, and as they rise upon the 

 wing the sun tints with silver the delicate pearl-grey of 

 their upper plumage. We push on and now descend 

 a steep slope of the down, where the sun has not yet 

 made himself felt, and the rime lies thick and frosty 

 upon the longer herbage. Another mile or two, and 

 we are at the meeting-place a quiet hamlet, lapped in 

 one of those warm, well-timbered coombs which lie 

 amid the spurs of the South Downs. Fifteen minutes 

 in front of a pleasant, spacious, comfortable-looking 

 country-house ; cherry brandy or ale for those who 

 fancy it ; conversation, which, despite the hard times, 

 sounds cheery enough ; and then the word is given 

 and hounds are trotted away to the woodland close at 

 hand. 



The squire here is a keen fox-preserver, and not five 

 minutes elapse before the whimper of a single staunch 

 hound has proclaimed a find ; the whimper quickly 

 swells to a chorus, and then, in full cry, the whole 

 pack break covert and face the long, sloping shoulder 

 of down which stretches above them. A quarter of a 

 mile in front you may note a small, solitary patch of 

 brown moving swiftly and very smoothly over the dull 

 green grass. That is the fox they are now in frantic 



80 



