160 THE OKEAM OF LEICESTERSHIEE. [Season 



to liis hounds, and, above all, keep clear of a piece of beans 

 planted by the good sportsman who owns the precincts. You 

 know the first dip down, where horses pull so that it is a 

 pleasui'e to them and to you to give them their heads for the 

 ascent beyond. You know the quick turn that places you on 

 to the grass — always a racing scent here and a downhill gallop. 

 You know that if you have pushed through these two ploughs 

 you have no crowd ahead of you down the grass vallej^ ; and 

 you have your work cut out to achieve sufficient puU where 

 timber cutting has breached the strongest of blackthorn ram- 

 parts. You must have a handy one, too, to turn sharp to the 

 right with the pack within twenty yards of an open gateway 

 that seems placed by Providence, but Avhich takes three or four 

 of the first-class clean over the mark. Forrard ! forrard ! old 

 ladies ! " Give 'em a moment's time, sir," and don't grumble 

 if the holloa lets the huntsman rob you of his own place — 

 though it is trying even to young nerve and young blood not 

 to get swing enough on at a post and rails with a yawuer 

 beyond. Forrard, along the vaUey towards Ashby, the fences 

 raspers and the pace tremendous — ]Mr. Foster leading, and Firr 

 in position just level with the rear of tlie •[)ack. Now a flight 

 of rails, of stifthess undeniable and altitude horrible — with a 

 wide, but luckily well trodden ditch beyond — becomes an 

 absolute terrifying necessity. In Leicestershire we do not 

 jump unless we are obliged, much less do Ave imperil our necks 

 unless a scent is palpable and exacting ; but you are clean 

 over in the tracks of the leaders, so are we, and so are fifty 

 more — though our own little clatter Avas re-echoed by a crash- 

 ing that reverberated like thunder along a storm-laden sky. 

 Go on, sir, noAv, and make the best you can of the fenced 

 bottom that next faces you, and that lets hounds stretch 

 themselves while j^ou are deliberating between impossible timber 

 and a double into a hedge that may give Avay, but that Avill 

 most likely tmii you over. Make up your ground quickly in 

 the next turn up to Ashby Pastures ; and don't hang over the 

 AA'ide doubly-fenced ditch that aAvaits you on the Avay, or (by 



