The Hunting Year 



they have gone home several times without 

 blood. Foxes have been more difficult to kill, 

 too, for another reason. Bold cubs have grown 

 so bold that they can no longer be held up, and 

 they have also grown stouter. And this has 

 added to our huntsman's difficulties. 



There is another thing, too, about October 

 hunting when such weather prevails. It is 

 generally admitted by experts that there is a 

 scent at some hour of the day, and judging as 

 well as one can, this would seem to be in the 

 early hours of the morning. On these squally 

 mornings the wind begins to rise and the rack 

 to ride just about the time hounds arrive at the 

 fixture. And an early start — that is, a very 

 early start — is an impossibility. Hunting cannot 

 well go on in the dark. 



At last the land has got a good soaking, and 

 it is now possible to ride over a country with 

 something like comfort — provided one does not 

 mind the blindness of the fences, for they, of 

 course, are blinder than ever. That is the state 

 in which the third week in October always finds 

 the country. I can only remember one excep- 



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