1881—82.] ST. martin's SUMMER. 387 



best after the parti-coloured ladies. (I speak advisedly — for 

 the Alfred roan, tlie Craven blue, the Belvoir tan, and the 

 yellow of Duster and distant ages, are all blended in as smart 

 a pack as was ever kennelled at Quorn.) The Gaddesby valley 

 is in front ; and they are so close at their fox that before he 

 clears the parish he and they are in the same lime-covered 

 plough — the only broken soil in the run. Up and across the 

 brookside to Ashby Folville — an ex-soldier, whose name must 

 occm- again on the page, being, with the huntsman, nearest to 

 them, till a twisted fetlock not only robs the former of his 

 sport, but sentences him to a six mile term in Bartley's unwalk- 

 ables, in company with another good rider unhorsed. At Ashby 

 Folville a moment's healthy check. For the air is positively 

 sultry, and the gi-ound quite wet enough and hilly enough — 

 fences well within management so far. At least I can recall 

 nothing that somebody had not broken down sufficiently — even 

 the ten foot bidlfinch that a man on duty went through, leaving 

 not even a clue to a hole in the apparently impervious wall. 

 The pack are now rmming terribly smart — the same sweet 

 grass valley still, till they seem to be leaving us for the day. 

 As they turn to the right a mile short of Twyford they are just 

 to be caught, and Reynard is just to be seen across the brook 

 half a mile away. (A cheery fillip to a huntsman is a view of 

 a fox when liounds have been at him some twenty minutes.) 

 The Twyford Brook ought to be nothing. It is nothing right 

 and left. But here it is unreasoning enough to shelve and 

 twist and burrow, and scarcelj'^ ever to give the opportunity for 

 which alone it must have been dragged across a foxliunting 

 country. You must look before you leap — a very fatal insist- 

 ance. The huntsman, however, makes little of it. Next 

 comer takes his chance and very nearly takes his cropper — 

 leaving the latter a legacy for next follower. Well-educated 

 sportsman ajjpears on the scene. " Know there's a ford. Here 

 are the bullock-tracks into the water from the other side." 

 The thorns studding the nearer bank may check the bullocks ; 

 but not the man to whom Leicestershire is a map engraved on 



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