The Hunting Year 



brook side for Warnton where I knew the earths 

 were open. I should not have held them over 

 the brook if it had not been for old Winifred. 

 She hung back to the brook side twice, and I 

 thought she was likely to know quite as much 

 as I did. So I just slipped over, and we got 

 on to the line in a moment and soon killed him. 

 The Weathergauge strain again, Jim." 



" It was strange his crossing the brook when 

 so tired and especially when other earths were 

 so handy," says another huntsman. And then 

 the conversation turns to foxes and their ways, 

 and it is pretty generally agreed by all hunts- 

 men present that but little is known of the fox 

 and his ways, though there is a general agree- 

 ment that a good fox cares nothing about being 

 hunted, whilst one man goes so far as to say 

 that a really good fox is rarely killed save by 

 a fluke. 



And so the conversation goes on merrily. 

 Hunting — hunting events, and hunting techni- 

 calities — are thrashed out again and again, yet 

 the subject never seems stale. For there is 

 always something new to be said about hound 



16 



