THE CRITIC 257 



an expectant country requires in providing a fox, 

 or perhaps two, and then for the afternoon draw 

 there is a long trot of some five or six miles, and 

 a good deal of wondering " why the deuce he 

 goes out of his draw ?" The M.F.H., you will 

 remark, is always he with his field. They may be 

 certain that there is excellent reason for the pro- 

 ceeding. Dingley Dell may have to be shot next 

 week, or a letter from the place to which the 

 Master actually goes may tell of the depredations 

 of an " old customer," which some non-hunting 

 supporter wants rattling up for some reason or 

 another. 



A curious incident happened under my notice 

 lately. Hounds met a considerable distance from 

 the kennels, and we had had a bad morning, scent 

 having been worse than moderate. Now there 

 were two parties, if I may use the phrase, out on 

 that day, one of which hailed from the neighbour- 

 hood of a town which I will name X., and the other 

 from a town which I will name Z. The Master 

 and I were riding together, and he remarked, " If 



I had quite my own way, I should go to ," 



naming a well-known covert, " for I know we 

 should find at once, but they would say it is out 

 of the draw, and the X. men want me to go one 

 way and the Z. men want me to go another. I 

 scarcely know what to do for the best, but at any 

 rate there is a little bit of thick covert about two 

 miles on, through which I will run hounds." So 

 off" we set to the covert in question, a rough, 

 rather sedgy place of considerably less extent than 

 a quarter of an acre. "Where is he going?" 

 "It's no use going there, there's no covert." 

 "What's the use of wasting time like this? " and 



s 



