350 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



Approaching the subject with his custoniaiy vigour, lie brought 

 all his weight to bear against such needless exaggeration of 

 detail, reduced the strongest arguments of the other side to 

 shreds, and passed quietly on his way. The main current of 

 l)ursuers, meanwhile, parted right and left for adjacent gates, 

 and rose the hill for Leesthorpe in two divisions. Never was 

 less flippanc}' displayed than at the little oxer on the upward 

 slope. It was bent, doubled, and finally broken, as if every 

 horse had lost the use of his hindlegs — and this the result of 

 only twelve minutes' galloping, plus a month's frost ! But the 

 result was not confined to horseflesh. The corpus rile and 

 vulpine was just as weak and out of condition. AVhile you 

 were thinking how best to frame to j'our groom yovu* sentiments 

 as to the absolute unfitness of the beast on which he had sent 

 you out to break your neck (and surelj' when a hundred grooms 

 are out of place, his master's life should at least be some little 

 matter of care to the one who is lucky enough to be receiving 

 pay to be ])itched into) — all this wliile poor Rej'nard was 

 cursing the ease with Avhich he had found rats ready to hand, 

 and the well-fed indolence in which he had spent the weeks 

 past. You and I, reader, may have looked rosy on our un- 

 wonted exertions, and scarcel}' thrown as much muscle into 

 our saddle-grip as a beaten horse demands ; but then we had 

 neither a long and pitiless pair of spurs into our ribs, nor a 

 hungry i>ack yelling in our ears, to enforce the fell conse- 

 quence of frost and self-indulgence. So for once one and all 

 of us could outstay our horses, and many of us found we had 

 already done so ere the hill-top was reached. I5ut our fox 

 had fortunately been only too glad to turn into the sheltering 

 spinney of Wheat Hills, there to quiet his own panting sides. 

 Tiittle rest, though, he found there. The covert was hotter, 

 and the scent as keen as outside ; the din was terrific, as 

 hounds spun their quany about the plantation ; and very soon 

 lie issued forth with the clamouring pack at his heels, and a 

 shepherd dog running him closer still. Indeed, it looked a 

 limidred to one against the fox, and ten to one on the collej'. 



