384 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



thesis — Note compared afterwards, " Where did you go, Major, 

 instead of coming over the brook ? " " Where did I go indeed ? 

 Why, under the water with my horse on the top of me. Look 

 at me ! " And, indeed lie looked like it — ^}'et laughed memly, 

 and said never a word to upbraid the familiar friend, who had 

 so unconsciously left him to be drowned or smothered.) 



Out of the road now, at General Burnab3''s Waterloo farm, 

 into the only bit of plough the whole gallop contained. The 

 little blue mare is pulled right over by the bullfinch ; and for 

 the few who clamber through it there is a slow sobbing pro- 

 gress through those half dozen acres. Another horse stands 

 still in the lane above ; and tlu'u come three wide grassfields to 

 IJaggrave Hall — only the tail-liouiuls in view, and only Downs, 

 Firr, and the whip, near enough to see even them. The wire 

 fence of the park involves a wide detour and a loss of half a 

 minute's time. Meanwhile Muggleton, of fox-keeping fame, 

 has seen the fox pass by the Prince of Wales' Gorse (five-and- 

 thirty minutes after leaving Lord Moreton's), with the leadmg 

 liomids only fifty yards from his brush. By this time of course 

 they are out of sight ; and the huntsman overshoots the mark, 

 Avith the body of the pack already on a fresh line. For in the 

 hot still air the sound of the coming chase has been carried 

 forward for miles ; and at least three foxes are already afoot. 

 The leading couples are the next moment visible across the 

 valley, running hard b}' South Croxton. The rest of the pack 

 is hm'ried round to them ; but the beaten fox has dodged them 

 in a hedgerow — and false information leads on to a fresh fox 

 and the loss of a fine finish. Yet it was a splendid gallop ; 

 and instanced the pace of Mr. Coupland's lady pack very 

 vividly. There was nothing to stop horses but the tremen- 

 dous pace ; and hounds fairh' beat them after the first twenty 

 minutes — the whole time of the run, up to South Croxton, 

 being fully three-quarters of an hour. Again, it wdll easily be 

 imderstood that, in making use of the names of some who 

 were nearest hounds, I have been by no means speaking of a 

 number of men racing against each other. In a really good 



