42 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



rence this cold-scenting season) they were unable to turn 

 with their fox, though almost close at his brush. He had 

 twisted to the left, away from Shuckburgh's enticing 

 front ; and huntsman's help was needed to set them again 

 on the line. Now they went on fairly over that wild 

 broken slope of grass, whereon watercourses and gullies 

 bound every second field, on the way to Catesby. These 

 chasms, or bottoms, were easy enough on the left, upper 

 ground, near their source. They were confusing and 

 difficult, boggy and trappy lower down. The right-hand 

 division had a rough and embarrassing experience among 

 them, and in consequence cared little for this part of the 

 run. (Is not our estimate invariably framed on our own 

 accidental experiences of the occasion ? Were any of us 

 ever known to crack up, or enthuse over, a run in which 

 we had, for instance, failed to get a start or failed to keep 

 one — or, say, lamed our best horse, or been left in a 

 brook ?) 



But — whether we galloped smoothly, or whether by 

 dint of scrambling, wading, rambling hither and thither in 

 search of outlet,, and of spurting furiously in between 

 times — we all at length came into Catesby's old park, and 

 pulled up on the brink of Dane's Hole. Our fox had 

 already been viewed forward and beyond ; and a few 

 minutes later we were working on by Hellidon and Grif- 

 fin's Gorse — the pace quite fair, and nothing to complain 

 of but Dr. Johnson's wired farm. Onward they ran well 

 till past and above Charwelton village (a six-mile point), 

 when suddenly our fox, tired of straight-going amid the 

 clinging mud, turned short back behind the village. 

 Horses had already lost much of their fresher vigour ; 

 but the very ugly Charwelton Bottom was successfully 

 tackled by Messrs. Walton, Laycock, and Hatfield ; while, 

 partly under a sense of self-security, partly under an im- 

 pression that the delay of the moment on the part of 

 hounds was likely to last indefinitely, the others rounded 

 the double by means of the adjacent road. The pack 

 thereupon set to work to run harder than they had yet 

 been able to (and this down-wind in a snowstorm !), gave 

 even the bolder trio a stern chase, and only let the others 



