242 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



ground — ever an important factor in our enjoyment of 

 the Grass Countries — is of particular importance when i 

 once the dust begins to rise from the arable, of which 

 even here we cannot aspire to be wholly free. It is not , 

 merely that hounds cannot often run when the dust-clouds I 

 are driving ; but there is something so incongruous in the ! 

 existence of the latter, that in their presence we feel out i 

 of place and out of season — as if, in fact, we ought not | 

 to be hunting the fox at all. On this occasion we soon ] 

 left the dry acres, by Boddington village, which were 

 being busily prepared for corn (that, alas ! can never pay 

 for growing) ; and found ourselves among the pleasant 

 meadows of Priors Marston. At this time of year, it 

 seems to me, there is a very gluttony in the appetite of 

 hunting-men {riding-men, if you think the term more 

 appropriate, in connection with a Northamptonshire field. 

 I decline to accept the correction as being by any means 

 absolute) — of riding-men for strong fences that would i 

 have set most of them meditating only a month or so ago. j 

 They never lose a chance now, any more than a con- , 

 firmed drinker ever turns from a proffered glass. And , 

 over the upstanding barriers of this tempting country i 

 they rode abreast — each, apparently, endeavouring to 

 better his neighbour. There was something of the same 

 sort yesterday, though with only a quarter of the oppor- 

 tunity ; and this on the part, not so much of professional 

 thrusters as of, more or less, amateur aspirants, if I may 

 be forgiven for so putting it. Half the Pytchley field, it i 

 happened, had already arrived in a grass meadow : the 

 other half had not, but now proceeded to get there — out 

 of some village allotment-grounds separated by ordinary 

 hedge and ditch. So, scorning gap or gate, they charged 

 the fence in line. The result, if alarming at the moment, 

 was ludicrous enough when completed in safety. They 

 went down six in a rotv, tumbling in among their com- 

 rades so rapidly that the latter could scarcely give them 

 scope to roll. A slight rise in the further bank of the 

 " dyke " (as the hedgecutter of our English shires calls it, 

 identically with the definition in vogue in Ireland) caught 

 each horse by the toes, sending him and his rider turning 



