1880-81. J AN INTERIM. 349 



quickened theiu into furious life, and the cry of a single hound 

 liad dissipated all self-control ? In vain the Master connnanded, 

 besought, implored for a nunnent's grace. Believe me, Mark 

 Twain's impenitent mule is a fool to the aspirant for honours 

 in Leicestershire when the fit is full upon him and the fiend of 

 jealous}' has possession of his soul. Ears he has none. Eyes 

 he has, but only for one leading hound — or, better still, the 

 fox — and for the fence at which he must be first, or be mise- 

 rable. His best friend, crossing his vision at such a moment, 

 is but a black hateful blotch, to be cut out and erased, or at 

 the least to be wiped out of all significance. Such are certain 

 men at certain times ; and such they certainly Avere as they 

 burst through the dam of restraint that sought to hold them 

 back on the slojie of Gartree Hill on Eriday. They started 

 only one by one after the fox, but they rushed in a mad mob 

 after the first hound, the latter flinging along gail}' over three 

 enclosures in the happy honour of having a Quorn field all to 

 herself. The first early rush had been towards Great Dalby, 

 but the presence of drain-diggers altered it at once to the 

 Burton Flat. The pack dashed through the torrent as it bent, 

 and with a tremendous scent carried a fiying head across the 

 smooth wet meadows over which the covert looks. Spreading 

 right and left, the great field bustled and splashed as best they 

 might in their wake, open easy timber prefacing the early part 

 of the galloj), a wide cavernous boundarj'-fence then giving a 

 still broader spread to the charging phalanx, and the deep 

 sodden turf clinging with distressing tenacity to every plunging 

 boof. How desperately, wildly, a field was crushing forward; 

 that usually boasts of riding fairer than any Hunt in England, 

 might have been gleaned by a glance along that single wide 

 fence. Men rose at it pocket to pocket, lit on each other's 

 heels, and even rolled over one another on the farther bank. 

 Beyond this again the play opened out rapidly. But a well- 

 known quick-set-and-double post-and-rails temj)ted only one 

 candidate, Mr. Chandos-Pole, who at once took upon himself 

 the responsibility of simplifying the unnecessary complication. 



