J 70 THE CREAM OF LEICESTEESHIRE. [Season 



green lane, alongside whose convenient track hounds are now 

 really running to a head. Sharp to your left now, and follow 

 Gillard over the post-and-rails that bomid the lane. Hold up, 

 3'oung one ! If you do mean to hit the post, j'ou needn't make 

 such a disgraceful clatter over it, and for ever ruin your 

 reiJutation as a timber jumper ! There is beautiful grass in 

 front — Gartree Hill and the Quorn country opening its anns 

 before us. Every fence has a jumpable place in it, if a 

 summer's growth of leaves, and a summer's sun now shining, 

 will let you see it. Our course is nearl}' due south, and the 

 flickering brilliancy of the sunlight and the half-frozen surface 

 of the northern sides of the hedgerows form two little diffi- 

 culties, under which more than one horse succumbs. The 

 hedges are still so thick that hounds can scarcely pierce them 

 — while a fence that later on we may fly m fifty places, now 

 rears itself a black stockade with scarce a gap or loophole. 

 But a few minutes over the tm'f brings us on to cold plough, 

 and hounds scatter every way baftled and beat. A stray 

 labourer, though, tells of a sharp turn towards Gartree Hill, and 

 they are lifted on once, twice, till the two fields of unsympathetic 

 clay are left behind. Taking no heed of a deceptive holloa 

 over the Burton Yale, Gillard quietly and cleverly helps them 

 to work it out till the}' have crossed the brow above Gartree- 

 hill Covert, and embarked on the stout-fenced pastures of the 

 Great Dalby lordship. Now they are again going fast enough 

 for a gallop and manj' a pleasant jump ; and we revel m it as 

 almost the first fruits of the season. A right straight-necked 

 fox keeps us moving on steadily southwards, turning neither for 

 the tempting shelter of Burrough Hill nor the coverts of the 

 Quorn. The beautiful vista of the valley of the Melton 

 steeplechase course now stretches invitmgly below. Sheep 

 may even be seen dashing aside on the opposite hill, pro- 

 claiming the passage of the harmless terror-striker. Eeynard 

 has nothing but his own safety to think about — even had the 

 silly creatures a thousand new-born lambs to offer — and safety 

 is gradually becoming a very embarrassing consideration to 



