i8o 



THE BEST OF THE FUN 



and nose across cold scenting dirt. Some runs will send you 

 to bed exhilarated — inebriated, if you like, with or without 

 the addition of old champagne. There are some runs — 

 this was one — for which I would not pull out a bottle ; 

 or, in more practical, sober English, that engender de- 

 spondence rather than delight of thought. And yet nobody 



^ *i 



S:i^X^'*^ 



i^'iKl^ii rn^ ^''^» 



//' 



^1 ~ 









■^-^, 





^^^^""^'^^N^?^" 



Continuous acres of plough 



more than your contributor (who muses in humble 

 gratitude upon the fact that he has to-day been hunt- 

 ing wrth the choicest pack in England — may he be 

 pardoned for thus confidently asserting it) — nobody 

 appreciates more wholly those pushing qualities which 

 lend a charm to a hunt over cold, repellent ground. 

 In a word, I hate such ground, though I love and admire 

 a pack that can make a run over it. 1 confess to returning 

 beploughed. bedraggled, like a fox whose heart has been 

 well-nigh broken by the weight of mire upon his brush. 



