The Hunting Year 



worse than it is just before one. The water- 

 soaked fields are not calculated to carry a scent, 

 and though on grass, and in some places hounds 

 may be able to run a bit, at the best scent is sare 

 to be catchy. Then hounds, that is the yoang 

 ones, will have forgotten some of the lessons 

 they learnt earlier in the season, and from their 

 very gladness at rinding themselves at work 

 again, will be apt to be headstrong — aid just 

 a trifle wild. 



And the field? Well, the bulk of tiem are 

 just the concentrated essence of wiliness, if 

 such a phrase may be permitted. No sooner 

 does a fox show himself outside a covert than 

 there is a wild charge of cavalry in his direc- 

 tion, and, of course, he is headed. And when 

 hounds are once well out of covert and appar- 

 ently settled, Jones and Co. press or Smith and 

 Co., and Smith and Co. press on Brown and 

 Co., and Brown and Co. press 01 Robinson 

 and Co., and Robinson and Co. press on Jack- 

 son and Co., and Jackson and Co. press on the 

 hounds and drive them fields over the line, and 

 the huntsman swears, sotto voce, md the long- 



120 



