A MEMORABLE MARCH 337 



Gorse, are but five miles apart. But we ran this twice, 

 and, if you know not how good a country it contains, may 

 it fall to your lot to learn before you die. Apart from the 

 point, our fox ran as usual a fish-hook course. And now 

 I have done, I wish I could have told you all, and better, 

 that, like me, you might have laughed in your sleep at the 

 thought of the men and the mermaids in the water, or 

 cen of the seraph who hovered the glad pack around. 



To most of the little incidents I venture to snatch 

 belongs a moral. Punctuality is the virtue I would now 

 extol. Some few days ago the Master of a certain pack 

 (one of the six or seven with which I enjoy the happiness 

 of an occasional hunt) found himself unable to attend the 

 meet with his usual soldierly punctuality. With charac- 

 teristic courtesy, however, he had arranged for his huntsman 

 to move off after giving the ordinary brief law. This done, 

 the Tom Moody of the period had found his fox, had 

 extricated his hounds from the first vortex, and, getting 

 their noses down, had thought himself settling to a run. 

 " Hold hard ! hold hard ! " he aspirated. "Just a minute, 

 gentlemen," he beseeched. " Will ye now ? Who's that 

 on the grey right over the line ? Oh dear, oh dear ! " 

 " Heigh ! you sir ! " roared several acting Masters. 

 " Where are you going to ? " vociferated each jealous 

 thruster, the wind thus knocked out of his sails by some 

 unknown, with a full field's start. And how did he get 

 there, with that great oxer between us and him ? A gal- 

 lant fellow anyhow. " Stop, sir ; heigh ! " went up the 

 chorus. Heavens, 'tis the Master ! And a solemn silence 

 fell upon the excited assembly as the great man rode up, 

 his blushing honours hot upon him, to take his place at 

 the head, no longer in advance of it. 



CHAPTER LIl 



A MEMORABLE MARCH 



The best scenting day of the winter was Wednesday, 

 March 21, with the Pytchley. Will not this March of 

 1894 be memorable? On Wednesday a fox could never 



