CHAPTER XLI 



A DAY ON WHEELS 



During the thirty -five or six seasons' hunting 

 which I have enjoyed, it has only once or twice 

 been my lot to hunt on wheels. I have had many 

 a day on foot, and have run till I was exhausted 

 after Beagles. I have been reduced to a hack 

 and had to ride to points accordingly, and once I 

 fell in with hounds when riding a hack, and found 

 out that the little 15.2 mare I was riding could go 

 with the best of them, with the result that she was 

 immediately put " on her promotion," and carried 

 me for many seasons, and her skin now forms a 

 rug in the room I am writing in. But, as I said 

 before, to hunting on wheels during this fair spell 

 of sport I have been almost a stranger. Of 

 course I have seen a good deal of the people who 

 hunt on wheels in all sorts of countries, for there 

 are at least in every good country, people in 

 carriages and dog-carts who are as regular in their 

 attendance at the principal fixtures as are the 

 scarlet-clad members of the hunt. The aristocratic 

 victoria or landau and pair, with liveried coachman 

 and footman, and containing a party of fair ladies, 

 who prefer this way of seeing hounds to the dangers 

 and delights of following them across country ; the 

 smart pony in the dog-cart, with many furred rugs, 



