1881—82..] ST. martin's SUMMER. 385 



gallop with such hounds as are now gomg over tlie Shires, it is 

 simply a question of how many riders are well mounted enough, 

 quick enough, and lucky enough, to keep them in sight at all. 

 A single mistake or bad turn will throw the best man out of a 

 burst ; while only a horse that is stouter, faster, fitter and freer 

 than common has a chance of coming through the ordeal with 

 credit. It is on these lines that competition can exist without 

 jealousy. And thus only has a scribe a legitimate right to the 

 use of names. He notes a record of high performance, not a 

 story of mischievous rivalry. 



ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER. 



Saint Martin's summer, I am told, is the name by which 

 the recent warmth of early November should be called. An 

 after-taste of summer truly, and a banquet of sport for a 

 Martinmas feast. St. Martin for the future is my patron 

 saint ; and the Bishop of Tours-and-Foxhunting, my nightly 

 toast. Such sport as has been poming in latel}^ each day and 

 every day, has exceeded the most random hopes. Such an 

 autumn has not been seen in anything like middle-aged 

 memory — and half-hours with pen and paper, snatched in the 

 midcurrent of events so stirring and hurried, are inadequate 

 to convey at all a full idea. But the chronicler cannot stop at 

 home to write — if he is to see what he has to write about. 

 Hence " errors and omissions excepted " must be held an 

 admissible plea : and his notes taken in lieu of better. In a 

 word, hounds have run hard every day, foxes have selected the 

 choicest lines, and fine runs and fine finishes have been of 

 daily occurrence. 



I need go back as far as Wednesday, November 9th, only to 

 note that the Belvoir had a sterling thirty-five minutes from 

 Melton Spinney, to ground in Grimston Gorse. Those who 

 know the country will recognise how good the line, and how 



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