February Fill-dyke 



suffering Master swears at the top of his voice. 

 Another peculiarity of the field is, that however 

 quiet they may be on other occasions, they are 

 noisy enough on the first day after a long frost, 

 and at every check and even when hounds are 

 running halloas in every key are heard all over 

 the country. 



The horses are perhaps the wildest of the lot. 

 That sober old hunter who has passed his twelfth 

 year, nearly upset his gallant owner within a mile 

 of the meet by shying across the road, for no 

 possible reason except that a bird that he could 

 not have seen flew out of the hedge twenty yards 

 in front of him. The brown, who is known as 

 Sobersides in the hunt, has just astonished his 

 master — and himself as well, by jumping off all- 

 fours suddenly and indulging in three or four 

 vigorous buck jumps which only just missed end- 

 ing in catastrophe. When the old stagers are like 

 this, what can be expected of the young ones? 

 They are naturally all over the place, and as 

 hounds go from one covert to another early in 

 the day, it behoves the sportsman to be very 



careful, for kicking horses are all round him, 



121 



