110 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



to round the hill-top ere the i^ack were moving on over it. 

 Horses had just gained their second wind as they were called 

 to stretch themselves out again ; and dipping (and slipping) 

 down the face of the natural grandstand, they found them- 

 selves, for the second time in one week, competing in a " red- 

 coat race " over the Melton Steeplechase ground — as if to 

 testify to its right to be called the most sporting course in 

 England. Honest flying fences, big enough to extend a good 

 hunter, and turf as springy as a diving-board, with hounds 

 running as fast as if they realised the honour of going over 

 such ground. Swinging along under the far hill, they are 

 taking the beaten track fence for fence. But if Captain Riddell 

 knows that many of these easy-looking jumps are normally 

 strong ox fences, all of those behind him do not ; and, though 

 he puts the steam on and sweeps wide over a rasper, his three 

 followers drop on the far rail with a crash that might have 

 been heard in Melton. The sight as they rose the hill was 

 quite the fox-chase of the old brown beer jug — fox, hounds, 

 and horsemen all close at each other — tlie first-named dead 

 beat, but struggling on like a lion-hearted one, hounds bristling 

 along within fifty yards of his brush, and the field eagerly 

 pressing forward to view the worry. But the *' brilliant finish" 

 was denied — as in practice it almost invariably is, a kiU being 

 much more frequent after an indifferent run than a first- 

 rate one. Their fox gained on them at the hedgerow and 

 slipped over the next small inclosure into Adam's Gorse with 

 his furry coat intact; while the Babel of "tallyhos" and hound 

 music started a fresh one from the little covert before the 

 hounds entered. Taking his line up at once, they ran on fast 

 as ever to Bm'dett's Covert (by way of Bm-rough Hill), where 

 the sport may be said to have ended, for they did nothing 

 after leaving it again. Up to this point could not have been 

 less than forty-five minutes — though it may have been a trifle 

 more — and throughout there was nothing that could be termed 

 a check. The first part was too fast for hunters, particularly 

 in early November, and second horses were' never more 



