LOITERERS 257 



brook only to be stopped by the main stream, and have to 

 jump back again. The pack travelled fast while we 

 galloped the Watling Street, by Bentsford Bridge, to catch 

 them hovering on a wheatfield. Goodall had them for- 

 ward, by help of a view on the part of Alfred (he and John 

 both doing good service in front during this difficult 

 spring day) ; so that hounds entered the covert of Twelve- 

 acres before their fox left it. Immediately, however, they 

 went on ; and soon, by the side of Coalpit Lane and its 

 plantation, up he jumped again, in view. The same one ? 

 Well, he had the same white tag. But he was very strong ; 

 and though headed and turned after half a mile down the 

 road, he had no intention whatever of giving himself 

 up to hounds. They hunted him through the gardens of 

 Newnham House, but could do little more. So the run 

 — a thoroughly good hunting-run of fully two hours — 

 was brought to a close, and hounds went home by train 

 from Rugby. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 



LOITERERS 



I AM at a difficulty in writing of Saturday, April i, 1893, 

 my last day of the season with the Grafton — a day when 

 those who care nothing for hunting the fox were lounging 

 at length or perhaps cricketing even, on the warm, dry 

 turf, thanking God for a pleasant Eastertide. Nor had we 

 any occasion for grumble — loitering on horseback and in 

 merry company through a spring day, where woods were 

 budding, where the thorn was flowering and the grass 

 rides were yet as velvet. But, to tell of Saturday as a day 

 with a crack pack — the Grafton lady pack of all others — of 

 a truth it is beyond me ! There were, if I am not mistaken, 

 some few strangers out. One there was I can aver, 

 and he from Essex, where at all events the}^ don't 

 head their accounts " Grass Countries " as we do before 

 taking our readers often as not among woods and plough. 

 By good chance he has thrown his diary in my way ; and 



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