52 



THE BEST OF THE FUN 



that in the Shires the bitches do their work sharper and 

 better than their big brothers ; they are less easily put 

 out, and a great field of horsemen troubles them much 

 less. 



But of this foggy gallop. It took us along the canal- 

 side westward, and then we went — somewhere. It mattered 

 little where, so long as the country remained rideable. As 

 it was, I think most of us would at the time have much 

 preferred a far lower and weaker scale of top binder and 

 rail, though there was but little hesitation, after the ex 

 ample of Master and man, on the part of Messrs. Verney, 

 Graham, Milne, J. Mills, Newbold, a stranger in pink 

 swallow-tail, with Mr. Ford's novice, and a few of whose 

 names I must plead ignorance or forgetfulness. Short 

 a distance as one could see — at times not a dozen 

 lengths ! — it was said that a view was again caught of 

 the fox by one of the little field, as he swished through 

 a corner " scarcely ten yards before hounds." Let this 

 be as it may, the darkness grew more and more im- 

 penetrable, and Lord Willoughby stopped hounds by 

 Stockton village. Total time from the find, one hour 

 and forty minutes. 



I have finished (though I can scarcely expect to have 

 brought you along thus far, to read your release — even if 

 the frost of to-day should keep you a week in your 

 chimney-corner). No, I haven't. I am always ready to 

 volunteer advice, in the same way that many good people 

 occupy most of their time, and all of their conversation, 

 with gratuitous comment upon the concerns of their fellow 

 men and women, (i) Don't give the wife of your bosom 

 the housekeeping money just before starting for hunting ! 

 or, if you do, insist that she leaves it behind at home 

 An instance to the contrary occurred during the run of 

 to-day. These habit pockets are very indifferent money 

 bags. The purse flew out, the road was converted int 

 a very Tom Tidler's ground, and she was far too good 

 a sportswoman to stop ! (2) Get your supply of hats 

 in before the season commences, or at any rate before 

 the country again attains the present grievous con- 

 dition ! It looks funny, to say the least of it— nay, it tells 



