128 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



called upon to plunge and rise at top speed against these 

 chopping seas of turf. Many old sportsmen tell us we ought 

 never to breast them, but to take them on the slant. No doubt 

 we ought, if we have got the whole of the next fence to pick 

 and choose from, with hounds settled down and our start 

 assiu'ed. But it is a doctrine impossible to practise, when 

 riding for bare life (or, next thing to it, a start), and you have 

 to reach a necessary gate or gap in good time, or submit to be 

 blocked altogether out of your run. Perhaps hounds did not 

 go so fast in former days — at all events there were no such 

 crowded fields to contend against as now. The men of this 

 generation have long since laid it down as a maxim (practising 

 it too stronglj', on occasions, perhaps), that one field of real 

 galloping at starting will often save half a dozen afterwards ; 

 and bitter experience must tell one of the heartbreaking effects 

 of a careless or dilatory course at such a time. 



This first gate reached and passed, the chase opened out 

 over a good grass country, where there was room for everybody; 

 but the pace was so tremendous that there was soon little 

 danger of jostling or being jostled. Tlie quickest were yet 

 some distance behind the hounds, in spite of every effort to 

 get on terms ; those next to them Avere glad to take their 

 pilotage in immediate succession ; while the body of pursuers 

 lengthened out like a huge comet, with the Christmas element 

 as its tail, growing broader and longer as it went. For ten 

 minutes hounds ran marvellously fast ; then, crossing the 

 brook at the back of Barkby Thorpe (by no means a comfortable 

 jump), reached the village in another five. 



A fresh fox jumping up in the open caused some confusion 

 for a time ; but the real object getting up again in view, the 

 run was carried on over an almost unknown country, and good 

 hunting ensued for nearly an hour. First they left the land 

 of grass and took a survey of the flat " enterpriseless " district 

 near Syston, making a close reconnaissance of the scene of 

 the railway accident, and bringing the holida3'-makers back for 

 an inspection of the beautiful Queniborongh Spire. Having 



