68 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



unwillingly into a brook, and there were called upon to 

 stand, while the rider of one dismounted to tear down a 

 rail on the farther bank. During this operation one of 

 them bethought him he would drink ; the other bethought 

 him he might rest his weary head, which accordingly he 

 did across the neck of the first. The dismounted rider 

 having returned to his saddle, it was time to go on. The 

 horse that had quenched his thirst raised his head with a 

 view to progress, and in so doing carried the tired one's 

 head upwards. Here they were, irremediably stuck, like 

 stags locked in combat, or bullocks in a crowded truck. 

 Neither could move, and hounds were running ! I have 

 reason to believe they are not there still ; but the incident,, 

 as I left it, was fraught with terrible possibilities. 



Having brought you to the end of a long, not unevent- 

 ful day — the events, by the way, being emphasised by 

 quite an extraordinary number of mud-stained coats and 

 habits, for, you must know, these safety-skirt ladies run 

 up their list of croppers as flippantly and light-heartedly 

 as a Meltonian in his first season, or a rough-rider in 

 his first situation — I will now tell you how to get home 

 again, as illustrated for my special benefit this even- 

 ing. A long ride home is often tiring, and it is very 

 easy to leave a pony-cart out. Don't forget the big fur 

 rug. Then, if you squeeze in three abreast on the one 

 seat, everything is in favour of your keeping warm. All 

 right ! Let go his head ! Up reared the pony, eager 

 for his collar. But, before he got there, down came the 

 lash, astonishing him to such a degree that, with one 

 wild buck into the air, he broke both shafts, tilted the 

 trio softly backwards in one fur-covered mass, and then 

 straightway set ofif home on his own account, frightening 

 the led hunters out of their wits as he clattered past them 

 half-way. Capital business driving home after hunting. 



As I have asserted many a time before, fox-hunting is 

 in truth the well-loved sport quite as much of the agri- 

 cultural classes as it is of the mounted and scarlet-clad 

 classes (even as defined almost to extreme to-day,in the high- 

 born and titled roll-call of the latter). A day upon which 

 the " hoonters " are about gives vivid pleasure to a ten 



