HUNTS AND THEIR HISTORY 159 



down. They laugh at these hounds and call them 

 Warde's Jackasses, but they were no Jackasses the 

 way they held the line. I got a bit of help up a lane, 

 and when I passed Gumley hounds were beginning 

 to run again. 



" The horse was quite fresh again and beginning 

 to pull, so I jumped out of the road and was at the 

 bottom of the hill below Gumley and soon in the next 

 field to the pack. Oh, it was beautiful to see them 

 running and to hear them too, better than the Italian 

 Opera, for you could tell what they meant ! We were 

 getting fewer now ; Sir Harry Warde the master's 

 brother was leading and then the huntsman and three 

 of four more, and then I was coming along. The horse 

 was quite steady now and was going most beautifully, 

 taking all the fences as they came. You would not 

 have had to feel ashamed of the old country. I 

 wished some of ' ours ' could have seen us. 



" It was a fine country, most of it grass such as 

 you might graze a bullock on to every acre of it. 

 There was a place called Norton in front, and in the 

 distance we soon saw Billesdon Coplow, and I made 

 sure we were going there. I was beginning to wish 

 for the end, for I did not know how much longer 

 the horse would go on. The funny thing was that 

 this fox did not go into the coverts but just skirted 

 the edge. We were now a long way in the Quorn 

 country of course. Still hounds were running on, 

 not very fast, 'tis true, but quite as fast as we could 

 manage. Well, in the bottom below Norton was a 

 brook and there I had another fall, for the horse 

 jumped at it well, but, a bit of the bank giving way 

 on landing, we came down, but soon scrambled up. 

 This put me further behind and, not knowing the 

 country, I lost sight of hounds, which you can easily 



