A CHAPTER OF EXCUSES 315 



very much akin to the uncarting of the stag in the unearth- 

 ing of Reynard on Saturday. His lordship was forward 

 superintending operations, while we sat and quivered in the 

 next field, till his horn should sound the signal. It sounded 

 at last. We hurried up after Goodall, and the pack were 

 laid quietly on the line. For a field our two our fox had run 

 in a dazed fashion — perhaps the terriers were at his brush 

 — though, when once his head was straight, there was little 

 hesitation in his style of going. Thus, time enough was 

 given for us to file through two bridle-gates while the pack 

 rounded a slender plantation and came back upon us as 

 we stood face to face with a low but newly-built flight of 

 timber — a stalwart hussar as squadron leader. Now they 

 are past us. Now you may get on. " Forward the 15th, 

 the world is looking at you ! " And next minute fifty sets 

 of heels rattled the timber, taking it in close order like 

 sheep out from a fold. From the very start it was a 

 difficult run to ride. No sooner were you set going in one 

 direction than hounds demanded a fresh effort in another. 

 And, I maintain, the fences were strong. Who, for instance, 

 looked for a double ditch to that broad fence in the first 

 valley, when we skirted Dr. Johnson's wire trap and headed 

 for the Bicester covert of Dane Hole, a mile and a half 

 away ? 



Goodall at all events was with his hounds as they 

 dived into this rough gully — a kind of Herefordshire dingle 

 it is, a watercourse running down its midst and its sides 

 clad with larch and bramble. For earths and rabbit-holes 

 here abound ; and nothing would have astonished us less 

 than that our fox should have here closed proceedings by 

 returning to ground. 



A very different catastrophe was to happen. You may, 

 or may not, know from personal experience that to cross 

 this glen we have been accustomed to follow a winding 

 path leading to a rough bridge over the stream. The path 

 was there ; and we crowded down this facilis descensus 

 Averni — to find the bridge collapsed and the chasm almost 

 filled with the debris. The huntsman at once jumped off and 

 led over, his horse recovering his legs after every one of 

 them had gone through the broken causeway. Mr Murland 



