AND A GREAT GALLOP 235 



Since the above was entered in my log, 1 learn that Lord 

 Chesham finished the day right well — with forty minutes 

 and a kill. He found his fox on Warden Hill ; hounds 

 dusted him to Red Hill, and back straight to Thenford with- 

 out a check, pulling him down in the gardens of Thenford 

 House. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



AND A GREAT GALLOP 



It can't be done, believe me ! It can't be done ! ! If 

 this torrent of sport continues to flow on, you may send 

 me down at once six new horses and a shorthand writer 

 (if the latter be a light-weight, and can be trusted to ride 

 second horse occasionally, so much the better). But 

 mortal man — even with a horse in every stall allowed him 

 by his landlord — cannot keep pace with the daily exaction 

 of wide points, killing bursts, and a country hock-deep. 

 We have scarcely know-n a bad scenting-day this season. 

 Last week alone gave us three immense long runs, the 

 Grafton Monday, the Pytchley W^ednesday already told, 

 and the Pytchley Friday yet to be entered, the last-named 

 having a better point even than either of the others, viz. 

 eleven miles, as I measure it roughly from Kelmarsh to 

 Hallaton. Yes, Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4, of 

 the Pytchley deserve a historian of their own, and him 

 without any of the toil of another half-week on his hands. 

 I forbear to claim such indulgence ; and you must put up 

 with me while I skim the subject as if it were all light 

 going, as if my heels w^ere untrammelled, and as if I had a 

 right to take my task thus easily. 



I begin with Saturday. Why ? Because it was short, 

 vigorous, decisive, and exciting, because it brought colour 

 to the cheek and light to the eye of every man and woman 

 who had taken part, and because after it there was laughter 

 in every voice and jest on every lip. I might be shy of 

 admitting preference for Saturday's thrilling gallop as 

 against the " good old-fashioned " chases of those three 

 previous days (far be it from me to undervalue them, or 



