314 OOVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



and set him down at once as an entliusiastic, if mistaken, 

 disciple of Euskin. 



"There is no long draw when once a move is made. A rushy 

 meadow hard by puts them on the line of a hare, which some 

 kind villager has just given a hint to move ; and when the 

 great twenty-three-inch harriers feel the line, there is such a 

 burst of melody as never greeted our ears before. We have 

 heard fox-hounds run hard in covert on a good scenting day ; 

 we have heard the chiding of the Devon and Somerset, when 

 their stag was set up in the stream below, re-echoed from some 

 deep combe ; we have heard the tones of fifteen couple of blood- 

 hounds, like the angry roar of the ocean, as they drove their 

 deer through the shade of Vinny Eidge and Boldre Wood ; but 

 never did we hear such hound music as this — such a full volume 

 of sound with such melody of tone. Then the swing ; the 

 way the great brutes went, lashing their sterns, all abreast, like 

 the horses of the sun, and topped the first fence. Say what 

 you like of slow coaches, it was a sight to see ; and so thought 

 all who were there, for neither bank or quickset stopped the 

 infantry division, and they were hard on the track of Jack, as, 

 having charged a big place and gained a good elevation, he 

 waved his hat and shouted, ' Gone away ! ' So far they had the 

 beet of it, for the country was scarcely calculated for cavalry 

 manoeuvres ; but now, by the help of a friendly lane, they made 

 play, and being down wind, there was no fear of losing the 

 pack, as they rattled their hare all alone through a wood beyond 

 the village, when the words of Somerville came back to us with 

 a force never before remembered : — 



Hark ! from yon covert where those towering oaks 

 Above the humble copse aspiring rise, 

 What glorious triumphs burst in every gale 

 Upon our ravish'd ears ! 



Then they brought her round, and we could see with what 

 precision and fidelity they traversed every ' work' she made, 



