88 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



what next ? On into space, and clown into depth. What 

 manner of men — of farmers, of landlords — ever devised, 

 and contrived, and executed such barrier as this ? Ele- 

 phants couldn't storm it, let alone the black Irish bullocks 

 of two-year-old growth. (By the way, what has become 

 of the stock since autumn, when the fat beasts fairly 

 chivvied the hounds in each field ?) 



Gallop we now our hardest, while hounds gain ground, 

 and the storm bursts ; but the deer, like a sensible animal, 

 chooses ever the easiest outlet, and hounds don't tail enough 

 to allow of the readiest rider jumping on them. 



Close to their sterns, though, ride Captain Dewhurst, 

 Mr. Hugh Gore, Mr. Percy Maynard, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, 

 and I don't know how many more — and, landing over 

 a wide double, they strike the road (what road, don't 

 ask me), while the pack dash alongside through a thin 

 plantation, and run parallel to them for half a mile. 



I hate a road to ride in. I hate a road worst of all to 

 jump into. It's a dangerous path to follow; it is a still 

 more dangerous trap to enter. But the deer has taken to 

 it, and we must slip in behind the others — with a wriggle, 

 and a squirm, and a recover — all because it was nothing, 

 and because the top bar, I mean top earth, wouldn't 

 break. 



Snow and sleet and driving storm were now full in our 

 faces. We jumped out of them, and out of the road, a 

 few hundred yards further on, turning sideways to the 

 gale and hoping that Mercy would keep our heads at 

 least half averted from the blinding storm. So cold and 

 bitter, too. I bethought me of Lord Manners and his 

 Liverpool victory, won, he declared, solely through the 

 medium of his woollen gloves ; and I banged each dog- 

 skinned hand in turn upon my thigh as I galloped, warm 

 everywhere else, and delighted. Nay, I could have laughed 

 aloud, for the pace and the fun and the novelty, till, till — 

 for man is very mortal, even in his hottest moments — I 

 saw something bigger and uglier than I had ever seen 

 before. And a man riding at it, too ; and this in a corner 

 whence there was no escape ! The ditch seemed bound- 

 less, the bank was as the Great Wall of China ; yet there 



