i68 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



pack should at first glance have dispelled any illusion on the 

 score of feeding and management. But, by the way, have 

 vou heard that delicious little incident that took place a week 

 ago in connection with a well-known pack, not more than a 

 hundred miles from the scene of to-day ? (AH the penalties 

 of incredulity will I take on my shoulders ere I divulge 

 more closely the locality. You know how mercilessly 

 huntsmen roast each other whenever chance arises. And 

 this story is sure to be going the rounds long ere our next 

 meeting of the Hunt Servants' Benevolent. Don't forget 

 the claims of that good institution, ladies and gentlemen 

 all !) Well, a certain good pack, sharp-set and fitly con- 

 ditioned, were thrown into a deep woodland. A stormy 

 wind and the huntsman's cheer alone broke the silence, 

 till, after half-an-hour without a sign, some one started an 

 alarm that hounds were away ; and the whole field, hunt 

 servants included, galloped far and wide down the breeze 

 in search of the pack. Nothing could be heard, nothing 

 could be seen of them ; so, after scouring the country and 

 other woodlands for miles, thev returned to the covert 

 from which they had started thus hurriedly, and the mys- 

 tery was soon explained. A farmer's bullock happened 

 to have strayed into the wood, and there had somehow 

 broken its leg. The good man, on discovering it, had with 

 his gun put the poor beast out of its misery, taken oH the 

 hide, and left the carcase in the wood. And round it, in 

 every attitude and aspect of repletion, was the missing pack 

 of hounds — so gorged, indeed, that no choice remained but 

 to take them straightway back to kennel. 



But of Wednesday last. Disguised in every form of 

 shooting-coat and nethers there was the cheery Pytchley 

 field — very much as we shall see it until after Christmas- 

 tide, when they bring out, according to custom immemo- 

 rial, not only " their sisters and their cousins and their 

 aunts," but all who are going to dance with them at the 

 Hunt balls. Far be it from me, or from any other im- 

 pertinent scribbler, to say that this will not be as it should 

 be, but it tends to make the gaps in the fences full fifty 

 per cent, wider, and possibly vexes the Master's soul in 

 proportion to the burden it lays upon the landholders. 



