248 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



goal, than aught that was run forth yesterday to the 

 popping of corks and the cry of the ring. 



I may pass over the rest of this wild, rough day. I 

 make bold, however, to remark that I was charmed with 

 the Atherstone lady pack — fine, lengthy hounds all of 

 them, but, more than that, exceedingly sharp and keen in 

 their work, driving hard and spreading wide. Not an 

 onlooker amongst them. 



Having seen the bitches in the open on Friday, I went 

 on Saturday to see the dogs hunt in the woodlands of 

 Coombe. And in the woods I left them still running, 

 while under the evening sun I sauntered by dusty road to 

 Rugby. Such journey is wont to prompt anything but a 

 cheerful vein of thought. A dry March is aweary penance. 

 No other Lenten ascetic, layman or ecclesiast, is " in it " 

 with the fox-hunter under such circumstances. And yet 

 I write this with a brace of Belvoir Ash-Wednesday brushes 

 figuring a broad smile above the mantelpiece ! Not another 

 word against March or its accident of condition. We 

 have not done with it yet, nor with April in snug corners 

 either. But men of moderate means cannot afford to 

 throw another leap, by any possibility avoidable, until 

 rain falls. With the Atherstone I gladly noticed that, as 

 usual with this pack, though unfortunately of late years 

 by no means usual elsewhere, a strong proportion of 

 farmers had taken the field. From Mr. Berry Congreve, 

 one of the finest horsemen of the past half-century, down 

 to a cluster of young men on their first purchases, all 

 looked workmanlike. But why do most of them ride 

 such inefficient, undersized beasts that can never do them 

 justice or pay for their corn ? Here were a number of 

 high-couraged, well-schooled horsemen bestriding animals 

 that may do to ride round the farm, or even to spur over 

 a jump at which a London visitor is craning helplessly on 

 his 200-guinea conveyance. But these indifferent cobs 

 have no more money value than their cost at last Rugby 

 lair, say ^20 for shepherding purposes. Another ^5 

 would have bought a big, bony Irish three-year-old, which 

 would have done the same work, done it better, given the 

 young owner twice as much fun, and brought back ^60 



