138 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



Gradually liounds warmed to it, and, leaving behind all those 

 who had not caught the signal for the double back, set off right 

 nierril}' over the grass between Shoby and Asfordby. Thus 

 they ran down to the railway, reaching it at the Frisb}' level 

 crossing, and twenty people took to the iron road at once. 

 But as tlie pack turned alongside of it a whistling coal train 

 drove these horsemen hurry-scurry out of its way ; and now 

 they were compelled to cross under the line b}' a narrow wooden 

 bridge, where the towing path of the 'Wreake runs beneath it. 

 This, too, over slippery boards, a train approaching overhead, 

 and the wooden arches scarcely higher than horses' heads. As 

 the rumbling and wliistling grew nearer and more imminent, the 

 terror of the rearmost of the band of horsemen grew insup- 

 portable ; for those in front could only move at slow foot pace, 

 and one frightened horse would have brought terrible conse- 

 (piences to all. However, this danger was surmounted, as had 

 been that of a bridge on the railway with a tempting hole in 

 it, and that of the hasty jump down the embankment. So 

 much for the railway, its perils, and its two bridges. But titc 

 bridge and the catastrophe were yet to come. Hounds were 

 now racing up to their fox along the flat meadows where Hobj'- 

 overlooks the river, and shortly pulled up suddenly at the site 

 of wliat was once Hoby Mill. The old milldam, its narrow- 

 foot-bridge, and its foaming cascade, present just such a 

 picture as we used to be called upon to coj)y, in the days 

 when fond parents or grasjiing teachers looked upon us as rising 

 artists. But surely it never occurred to us, even in our most 

 frolicsome or imaginative moments, to give such life and 

 colouring to the old sejiia scenery — albeit wooden-looking foxes 

 and club-legged horses adorned ever}' page of our Grammar 

 and Gradus. With every tongue going, the pack swam the 

 slack water — mottled heads and waving sterns alone showing 

 above the stream ; and at the same moment Mr. Tomkinson 

 and Capt. Smith led their horses along the slippery plank that 

 spans the waterfall. So far, so good ; for they reached the 

 other side in safety. But not so fortunate were the next three — 



