366 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



to make liis way quietly over the Marfield brook, where the 

 current narrows and a post-and-rail adorns its brink (easy 

 places always offer themselves to a man who confidently rides 

 only for hounds). Oh, such baulking, bothering, and scram- 

 bling now. Ever3'body in everybody else's way ; many men 

 disinclined to jump till tlie}'^ have assured themselves which is 

 the nicer place ; and most horses asking for still a little more 

 time to think. Hold up, sir ! Well recovered ! Two inches 

 less spring — and you would have followed your hind legs back- 

 wards into water ! And you have left the bank broken — and 

 the brook wider — for us by quite two feet. The hounds are dis- 

 appearing over the brow, before the huntsman is half-way up 

 the great grass field and a scattered dozen have crossed the 

 water after him. On in hot pm*suit of the pack for another 

 mile or so of fine turf and pleasant fences. Little change of 

 position in this time ; but the lot closing up quickl}- as hounds 

 waver a second on the only morsel of plough encountered in 

 the gallop. Mr. Wade, Mr. Johnson, Captain O'Neal, Lord 

 Manners, Mr. Cecil Chaplin, Mr. Brooks, and Captain Towns- 

 hend from the Atherstone, Lord Grey de Wilton, Captains 

 Boyce and Candy — these were some of the vanguard, in the 

 earliest, quickest part of the bm'st. Hounds of themselves 

 set things forward again in a trice; and swoop down upon 

 the second trial in the line — the Twyford Brook. But this, by 

 the same happy accident that had discounted the dangers of the 

 Marfield stream, is struck at a point where it, too, is the 

 mildest of obstacles. So not a single coat is wetted, in a 

 journey which has often found a ducking for fifty. Rising the 

 hill side to the left of Burrough Village, another half-moment's 

 hesitation occurs. Their fox has dodged for fifty yards along a 

 dusty road, and the pack fling across the line unable at first to 

 make it good. Mr. Coupland is there to check the pressing 

 field; and a heap of praise is due to the huntsman for the 

 quiet, clever wa}^ in which he helps hounds forward without 

 getting their heads up. Thus, with no practical loss of ground, 

 the run goes on over the hill, crossing it at a point above the 



