30 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



one deep-ploughed field ahead ? I wouldn't, unless to 

 begin life all over again. But I envy the man who did. 

 His principle was as undeniable as his courage. 



CHAPTER V 



THE PYTCHLEY FROM HEMPLOW 



Wednesday found us enjoying ourselves heartily with the 

 Pytchley, splashing over the wet grass (for as yet we do 

 not sink deep nor are held as we sink) and bedaubing each 

 other lustily. You never saw so many mud-covered and 

 dissolute-looking mortals as constituted the usually smart 

 field of the Pytchley on Wednesday last. By 4 p.m. 

 the features of them were unrecognisable under their 

 plasters of mire — varied, too, in numerous instances by 

 blood-streaks that they had picked up in the bullfinches — 

 while at least a moiety, apparently not satisfied with the 

 share of dirt thus awarded them, were carrying still more 

 upon their shoulders. 'Tis said that so many falls have 

 not been seen in Northamptonshire for a year past. 

 Why, I can't tell you. It was not the size of the fences, 

 for there was no occasion to jump anything big the day 

 through. Perhaps it was the wet, and the occasional 

 pace, and the blackberry leaves. 



" Capital day's sport — killed a couple of foxes," is an 

 old summary that has never conveyed anything tangible 

 to my mind. Nor would it convey at all why Wednesday's 

 was a good day's sport. Hounds killed a brace of foxes, 

 it is true — and without chopping them. But it was not 

 the brace of kills that made the sport and the fun — nor 

 that sent us home brimful of the old, happy, comforting 

 conclusion, '^Nothing like fox-hunting, after all !" No, it 

 was the spell of a good pack driving across the grass — the 

 charm of good companionship, of flying fences, and the 

 ever-varying incident of chase — the linking of a good 

 horse's wondrous physical power with man's eager spirit — 

 the glow of exercise — the rush of event — the knowledge 

 that only a small and uncertain share of Life's yo/Z/^s/ side 



