Fourteen Thousand Feet High 19? 



ground by a ditch, which half of the ponies, who had 

 never been jumped before, refused ; the scent lay thick 

 across the next field, which had been ploughed for 

 sowing, and it was nice, soft going. We jumped over 

 a small hedge into a buckwheat field, and here it was 

 as hard as iron. The scent was rather " catchy " either 

 a big handful strewing the ground thickly, or an 

 interval without any ; and we were sometimes cantering 

 all over the field, to find, perhaps, that the hares had 

 turned sharp up a hedgerow, and were away on our 

 right or left, as it might be. 



S. got into a bog after we had gone across a rice 

 field, and the pony came over on his side, but they 

 were none the worse. We ran on well till we came 

 to a small canal with an awkward place to ride under 

 or over, and a very narrow bridge beyond. Some 

 of the hounds led their ponies under, others over, 

 others were low enough to squeeze underneath without 

 getting off. We tailed over the bridge with much 

 pushing and jostling, and getting into the field, spread 

 out fanwise over it, hunting for the scent, which 

 stopped dead after twenty or thirty yards never a 

 sign, 



Into the middle of the field, and further was there none ! 



Suddenly a halloo back ! the cunning hares had 

 doubled under again by the canal, and were, no doubt, 

 by this time speeding away across the vale. We 

 squeezed and clambered back over the canal, and got 

 on the line again right-handed, galloping all we knew. 



