/» COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



stand the strain put upon them on such occasions. By the 

 way, there is another sight well worth seeing when a move is 

 made from Long Buckby to Yanderplanks, and a fox breaks in 

 the direction of Watford Gorse, which is the energy with which 

 the shoemakers charge the Long Buckhy brook, and the more 

 than equal energy with which the hard-riding Pytchley men 

 avoid it, and seek the bridge defended by that gate which it is a 

 sin of deepest dye to miss as you pass through, and let back in 

 the next comer's face, for verily to open it again is a work 

 requiring the combined strength and skill of Hercules and 

 Archimedes. Neither can the unlucky wight who finds his 

 passage barred look for help from the infantry division, unless 

 the scarlet-coated runner should haply turn up in the nick of 

 time, for the sons of St. Crispin would be far more likely to tell 

 him to jump the brook as they did than straighten his road by 

 opening the gate. On the whole, though, they behave wonder- 

 fully well, and do far less towards spoiling sport than may be 

 imagined, when treated by the master with a little good temper 

 and courtesy. By the way, too, their hunting must be all 

 pleasure, for no visions of a call for subscriptions cross their 

 dreams, a frost brings no prospect of horses eating their heads 

 off. I am quite willing to admit that a ISTorthampton or ISTew- 

 castle race-meeting may show a much larger number of *' the 

 people," as the Liberal organs now call those whose expenditure 

 for soap is of the smallest, on any given day or days ; but we 

 must remember that these festivals come only once or, at most, 

 twice a year, while one or two days a week, from November to 

 March, are regularly given up by these sons of toil for a bit of 

 fox-hunting, though they can only see the start with any cer- 

 tainty, and trust to providence and a good pair of legs for 

 catching a glimpse (often no more than a bird's-eye view) of 

 what is going forward during the remainder of the day. Again, 

 see how, as you ride to covert or return home, every small 

 urchin is anxious to know where the hounds meet, or if you 

 have killed ; and even the old woman at the turnpike-gate likes 



