1872—73.] OVER THE GRASS WITH THE COTTESMORE. 97 



FROM WOODLANDS OVER THE GRASS WITH 

 THE COTTESMORE. 



If masters of hounds, like managers of theatres, had to 

 compete for patronage, each advertisement from the Midlands 

 would to-day be headed "Uninterrupted Success!" "Con- 

 tinued Triumphs ! " or some like laudation. Of a truth, the 

 clouds have of late been pouring down good things as plente- 

 ously as they have sent forth snow, hail, rain, and wind. Who 

 will pretend now to know or prophesy anything concerning 

 sport, its probabilities and possibilities ? Given ever}^ accident 

 of wind or weather, of barometer or thermometer, there has 

 yet been an influx of fine sport, such as no slight personal dis- 

 comfort, no slight repinings on the subject of wet and mud, 

 could mar. Let us take Tuesday, March 11th, 1872, as one 

 example among the many that are worthy of recounting, and 

 that I must be content to mention cursorily. An uncertain, 

 unsettled day, with a glass that lowered throughout, and a sky 

 that at times scowled blackl}'-, as often broke furiously in rain 

 and hail and snowstorm, and now and again turned round with 

 a broad grin of sunny good humour. It was during one of 

 these last moods that Launde Abbey witnessed the meet of the 

 Cottesmore. Lawn meets such as this can have but little 

 variety in description, though in practice they ma}^ differ one 

 from another as faces in a photograph book. If I stop to 

 attempt to picture, I shall be robbing space and time from 

 record ; so let it be enough to say that the old Abbey and its 

 loft}^ frame of aged elms formed a fitting scene for the presence 

 of such a concourse as had gathered now. There were scores 

 of men there whose riding one may study and admire, and 

 whose names will go far beyond their own time and circle ; 

 while of good sportsmen and genial characters the roster ran 

 into hundreds. The Cottesmore dog pack, level and carefully 

 chosen as they are, are b}' no means as taldng to the eye as 

 their neater and more active sisters, who form as pretty a lot 



