APRIL HUNTING 311 



five or six o'clock, when our great-grandfathers 

 were beginning to think about supper, a fox may 

 be found that will lead you a merry dance and make 

 a good point before hounds get hold of him, and 

 in all probability you will have plenty to talk 

 about as soon as you wend your homeward way, 

 even if no very big places have tried the jumping 

 powers of your horse. There is nothing, in my 

 opinion, prettier than to see hounds run hard over 

 a moor, and there is one advantage in moor hunt- 

 ing, and that is that they can be seen well a long 

 distance. And well it is that this is so, for I need 

 scarcely say that many a time it is impossible to 

 be on really good terms with them. 



The ride home on a fine April evening after a 

 good day's sport is pleasant enough, but it is not 

 so pleasant as the ride to the meet early on an 

 April morning, with the Pleasures of Hope having 

 it all their own way. It is dreadfully old-fashioned, 

 I know, but I must own to preferring 6 a.m. to 

 noon for the hour of meeting when once March 

 is out. The ride on to the fixture on a fine 

 spring morning, when there has been rain during 

 the night and the air is fragrant with the fresh 

 smell of the earth and of budding leaf, is only to 

 be equalled by the ride on an August morning 

 when the sun is making each dewdrop sparkle 

 like a diamond, and you have the whole of a 

 glorious hunting season before you. Yes, it is 

 a pleasant ride enough, and many a time have I 

 jogged on ten or twelve miles to the meet before 

 6 a.m. in April. By that time a man is generally 

 ready for a second breakfast, and in the countries 

 in which my lot has been cast there was always 

 something substantial in the way of breakfast 



