320 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



CHAPTER XLVIII 



ROUGH AND TUMBLE 



If ever I felt inclined to commence with the protest, 

 " Story ? God bless you, sirs, I have none to tell ! " and 

 thereupon wipe my pen, it is to-day — Tuesday, January 2 

 • — and why ? because no hounds are within reach, and 1 

 have leisure and to spare. 



Our most amusing day of the past week was Friday, 

 December 28, a capital scenting day, and full of hunting 

 as to its afternoon. 



By fortunate coincidence, the Pytchley and Grafton, 

 meeting at Weedon Barracks and Towcester, the two 

 places about seven miles apart, were able to divide the 

 holiday-makers. To all appearance a fair might have been 

 in progress in the streets of Weedon. Towcester, I am 

 told, presented a similar aspect. A nice day, doubtless, 

 for driving and pleasure-seeking, it was also eminently 

 suitable for the more serious business of fox-hunting. 

 The Pytchley (with whom I had the privilege of throwing 

 in my fortune) entertained their cortege of chariots, foot- 

 men, and horsemen with a parade about the country for a 

 couple of hours. Then, with diminished numbers, they 

 set about chasing a fox from Vanderplanks, the covert, to 

 my mind, the least likely of all. However, here or here- 

 abouts was a fox. As far as I could make out, they 

 found him first outside the covert in one direction, then 

 on the other ; and quickly were at work driving him up 

 the valley towards Ravensthorpe. He drove very much 

 like a young horse whose mouth is unmade, and who has 

 no special ambition for harness, turning his head hither 

 and thither when pressed, and jibbing when opportunity 

 offered. And, ye gods, how the young men and the old 

 of the Pytchley hurried in his wake, the van dividing into 

 two sections, the one on the left led, through bullfinch 

 and thorn, by a dashing subaltern of the loth (P.W.R. 

 Lancers), while two of his erst superior officers headed the 

 senior division on the ri^ht. Both came to a check a few 



