94 TUE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



the hounds to a head, and the master was exerting his influence 

 to give them a fair chance, A happ.y — or unhappy — distraction 

 took place at the moment by a fresh fox jumping up and 

 catching the eye of a horseman beyond the white gate of the 

 bridle road to the right. Much mischief and trouble was after- 

 wards dated back to that hat and cheer. The most self-confi- 

 dent and self-opinionated could scarcelj^ set himself in opposi- 

 tion to the signal ; so ever3'one, except the master, who went on 

 to help the huntsman, and the Avhip, who went on to lose his 

 cap in a bullfinch, turned up to the right to save a many-acred 

 plough. 



I should like to tell this burst properl}'^ ; I should like to re- 

 produce the incidents of those fleeting minutes ; and I should 

 lilie to have brought nearer what in the afterguard was through- 

 out a catching vision just out of grasp. However, tantalisation 

 engenders double enthusiasm ; and lookers-on, even from 

 behind, often see much of the game. That false turn to the 

 right necessitated three fields of fallow for one it saved. Sixty 

 or sevent}^ men struggling to make up the ground lost at start- 

 ing, yet fearful to make too much use of horses through holding 

 arable. Only one hole in the bullfinch that separates them 

 from the grand gi-ass country over which master and men are 

 now skying away a quarter of a mile ahead. Capt. Candy, Mr. 

 Delacour, Capt. Stirling, and Mr. Foster first emerge from the 

 hindering soil, and embark in pursuit. A sloping pasture helps 

 them, and we all know that you can take liberties down hill. 

 One, two, three men popping over the rasper in front in that 

 quick jerky fashion that is best seen over the second fence of a 

 steeplechase, when horses fly as if they never meant to come 

 down again. The fourth comer, alas, is deceived by a pair of 

 doubtful forelegs (the source of all roguishness and temper) ; 

 comes round in the last stride, and brings two others with him. 

 Capt. Barker, on Coronella, sweeps over it in his stride ; and 

 not one of these is aware that they have jumped a horrid wire, 

 the mere sight of which would have tm-ned the blood of each 

 one cold. The next comer pitches upon it with a twang, that 



