322 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



By the way, as there recur to mind countless occasions 

 on which in recent weeks hounds have been brought to 

 check by these scudding flocks, does it not seem that 

 there are at the present time many more sheep in the 

 Grass Countries than we have seen for years ? I fancy 

 this is the case, consequent on the recent dry summer. 

 Sheep have thriven, and more or less paid their way. 

 Cattle have not, and are too expensive to winter. 



But, returning from the pastoral to the fox-hunting 

 aspect of the subject, I have heard it laid down with some 

 positiveness that a few cattle will foil the line of a fox 

 worse than a whole flock of sheep. This does not chime 

 in with my experience as far as I have been able to 

 observe. I have seen in my time — and fancy I even 

 know now— hard-driving hounds able on most occasions 

 to go right through a cluster of bullocks. (Was not old 

 Contest an instance, Mr. Firr ?) But they can seldom do 

 it with sheep. The passage of a flock across the line of a 

 fox seems usually to wipe out the scent as completely as a 

 sponge removes writing from a slate. It always seems to 

 me — though I pretend to lay down no law on such matter 

 — that a huntsman can aftord his hounds much more time 

 when baulked by cattle than when by sheep before he 

 takes upon himself to move forward to their assistance. 

 But I must hunt out such theories no longer. They come 

 only indirectly out of the present check ; and already was 

 Goodall, having brought his pack round to the direction 

 they first pointed as they dashed into the meadow — already 

 was he well on with his fox forward for Winwick. Pace 

 of course slackened for a while. A travelling fox had 

 gained ground, and for some fields that ground happened 

 to be cold arable. But even these fields were handsomely 

 fenced, as I shall prove by one instance — to wit, a thick 

 bullfinch with a five-foot drop into the next field. The 

 bullfinch thorns were just of requisite height to catch feet 

 and spurs of any rider of, say, life-guardsman's height. 

 Three such men rode abreast ; the thorns tilted each of 

 them out of all riding-school position, the drop did the 

 rest, and all three spun handsomely into the soft fallow. 

 For the life of me I could only in my gracelessness sit still 



