CHAPTER LVIII 



FOR NEXT SEASON 



"The king is dead, long live the king," applies to 

 fox-hunting as well as to most other sublunary 

 matters, and no sooner has the season come to an 

 end than men begin to talk about the prospects of 

 the next. Last week we parted at the edge of a 

 big woodland, after one of those good days on the 

 moors which brighten the closing season, and ere 

 we had reached home the prospects of next season 

 were mentioned more than once. Nor is it only 

 in our thoughts that the next season is touched 

 upon. In every kennel throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land active preparations are being 

 made to carry on the campaign with unabated 

 vigour when the falling leaves once more proclaim 

 that " the summer of our discontent " is at an end, 

 and the horn of the huntsman is again heard in 

 the land. 



Perhaps the huntsman has no busier time than 

 in the few weeks which follow close on the hunt- 

 ing season. The puppies will have come in from 

 walk a few weeks before the season closes, and dur- 

 ing the time they have been in kennel the hunts- 

 man and his assistants will have had their hands 

 full in contending with that fell disease, which 

 seems to attack foxhounds and greyhounds more 



