336 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



approached from the other direction.) We made Braun- 

 ston Covert in forty-live minutes, then, after some inter- 

 val, came back in our tracks, to strike the same water, 

 the same banks, the same bottom, or, maybe, the same 

 bottomless stream — and struck them. We went in by 

 pairs, believe me. There were husbands looking for wives 

 — no, perhaps I am exaggerating. There were wives 

 seeking half-drowned husbands, to find them dragged 

 out in entanglement with forms to which they had no 

 right, save that of common disaster. There were wives 

 struggling out of their depth while unwilling bachelors 

 pursued them downstream, and willing bachelors stood 

 on the banks and shouted cheap advice. " Stand on 

 your saddle ! Come to me, I am the safe man ! " and so 

 on. Two little maidens jumped over ; the cynic jumped 

 in ; while the men of the world, and for the most part 

 the women, went through by a ford, kept themselves 

 fairly clean, but splashed and besmeared each other as 

 they went. To complete the panorama a reproachless 

 man disappeared out of sight, swam to the surface, and 

 an hour afterwards (reinstated by home influence and 

 propinquity) reappeared whitewashed, reclad, and respect- 

 able. In like manner the disengaged couple came forth 

 during the afternoon from their separate sanctuaries — 

 looking, oh ! so bright, so guileless, and so clean, you 

 would never have believed in their luckless, and very 

 involuntary, misadventure. 



All this is nonsense, no doubt, but is it not true, and 

 with no entendre ? And meanwhile what have I told you 

 of the hounds ? Only that they hunted to Braunston 

 Gorse and back, treating the brook as a natural adjunct, 

 and its neighbourhood as a scene of charming delight- 

 ment. Our huntsman worked back to Badby Wood, 

 leaving Staverton Wood and Hill this time on the right. 

 He refound his fox near the main earths, drove him out 

 towards Everdon scarce able to crawl, and quickly brought 

 him to the end that all good foxes deserve, two hours and 

 twenty-five minutes from the find. 



Let me now look at the map. The extreme points, 

 from our leaving Badby Wood to reaching Braunston 



