The Hunting Year 



rule about scent in an Indian summer, and I 

 have seen two or three Indian summers in which 

 hounds could run well outside. In one of them 

 we had a succession of excellent sport — indeed 

 there were three weeks of the best sport we had 

 up to the middle of December. The going was, 

 however, terribly hard, and several falls had 

 nasty results. There was also a large number 

 of lame horses — indeed, scarcely a stable was 

 clear of lame horses when the season opened on 

 i st November. No wonder, then, that with 

 hunting men a little Indian summer goes a 

 long way! 



But all things come to an end, even an Indian 

 summer. One night in the middle of October 

 the wind, without any warning, whips round to 

 the north, and next day there is an ominous howl 

 amidst the trees, a bleak sky, and flying showers 

 of cold rain. And of this kind of weather there 

 can be several days without the rain making 

 any impression upon the ground. Scent in the 

 woods is as bad as it was in the Indian summer, 

 and out in the open, too, there has been little 

 improvement. Indeed in the open, scent is as 



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