FIRST SCORES 



173 



To a furious scurry like this must be a dozen, nay forty 

 different aspects, according to individual fortune, share, 

 and experience. This was Hke nothing but a point-to- 

 point race (except, perhaps, the Kadir Cup), which, as you 

 know, every one of the competitors would infallibly have 

 won — but for some unforeseen and tantalising accident. 

 Well, I was at this moment at least in good company — • 

 there being for instance, besides the huntsman and the 

 Acting Master, three of the Messrs. Mills, Mr. Wroughton, 

 Captains Riddell and Gordon Mackenzie, Messrs. Adam- 





Settled in their swint 



twaithe, Wilmot-Smith, Gordon Cunard, and I don't know 

 how many more. As we jumped, or gated, into the lane, 

 the tail hounds were glistening through the high bullfinch, 

 in the grass field beyond. Our " unforeseen accident " 

 was their swinging at once to the left, while we took the 

 road rightward for a full fifty yards. The mistake was 

 plain enough when, a moment after, we had emerged 

 again into the country, the tail hounds were leaving us 

 fast, and would soon be away in the mist. That clean-cut 

 post-and-rails, from grass into plough, is not nearly so 

 high as it looks ; and gave scarcely an effort to a dozen 

 horses just settled in their swing, with a dozen riders pain- 

 fully sensible of the danger of losing hounds. Ours was 



