Draghotmds 1 1 5 



merry style. " Now you can go," exclaims 

 the Master, and tlie whole field is quickly in 

 motion once more. Three formidable black- 

 thorn fences have to be jumped or " tunnelled." 

 The leader, mounted on a weedy, undersized 

 thoroughbred, jumps into the first of these, 

 and sticks fast. But the man immediately 

 behind him, not expecting this stoppage 

 in transitu^ and unable to pull up his very 

 impetuous steed, charges right into him, and, 

 applying as it were a hammer to a nail, 

 knocks him clean through the fence on to 

 his nose in the field beyond. The rest get 

 over in another place, and wading across a 

 shallow stream, jump the next two fences, 

 and come to a water meadow, intersected 

 with more or less rotten - banked ditches. 

 They are not big, however, which is fortunate, 

 considering that our horses are now galloping 

 in peaty ground, well over their fetlocks. 

 This does not last lono;, and we soon emerge 

 on to a lovely tract of sound grass, with nice, 

 jumpable fences. Here and there a post and 

 rails varies the monotony of the scene, a 



