A HOLIDAY WITH THE WARD 89 



was Mr. Gore and his chestnut flinging upward and into 

 it, and pinned to its side Hke fly to a window-pane, till the 

 mare drew herself foot after foot to the summit. 



And this, I learned afterwards, was The Gerardstown 

 Double. Yet I believe many — or even most — got up it, 

 and over it. Don't bring it over to our country is all I can 

 say ! We could do nothing at all with it there, believe me. 



The storm was a tempest now. The snow filled ears 

 and eyes and collars, embedded itself on manly chest, 

 drifted into feminine bosom, and there froze. You could 

 barely see twenty yards (and then only by hurried winks), 

 and yet hounds were running their very hardest, with a 

 cry that cut through the storm like the Inchcape Bell. 

 The best beacon, if you could keep near it, was the crop- 

 tail of Mr. Bo wen's brown mare, whose square quarters 

 could just be distinguished pounding off into the gloom at 

 a pace that threatened quickly to rob us of all guidance. 

 Now he was joined by Mr. Leonard — the best heavy- 

 weight, I make bold to say, I have seen for many a 

 year — and the twain (the latter the deputed Master) kept 

 hounds in touch through the blinding dow-nfall, till they 

 reached Corbalton and its park. 



Quaint indeed was the prospect now, as the sky cleared 

 and the sun shone through. A merry Christmas party 

 we were — covered one and all from head to foot with 

 encrusted snow, and with a carpet, two or three inches 

 thick, spread white and soft beneath our feet. 



Twenty-five minutes of the very best to this point, if 

 my standard of estimate be worth anything. Lord Mel- 

 gund, who saw it from the very van, and whose criterion 

 of a gallop with hounds has been formed on a very similar 

 basis to mine, would possibly bear me out. At any rate, 

 I take it, we shall go back to Northamptonshire appraising 

 it thus. And, likely enough, we shall talk for many a day 

 of how some four or five ladies rode through the storm, 

 over a country that, to say the least, awed and astonished 

 us both. Besides her whom I have already taken liberty 

 to name, Mrs. M'Calmont, Mrs. Galbraith, Mrs. Dewhurst 

 (on her wondrous cob, too, and not mounted as in the 

 gallop of Monday), and Mrs. Dudgeon. 



