GETTING INTO POSITION FOR ATTACK 143 



On we go at a jog-trot to the next covert, Foxey 

 Wood, which we made out in the distance when on 

 the way to the meet/ A jump on the way ? No — 

 certainly not, unless it is necessary, for we may 

 break a fence, or jump into crops, for nothing ; 

 besides, we never know when we may want a jump 

 out of our horse. 



This covert looks more likely ; plenty of warm 

 lying, and ups and downs of ground with sunny 

 banks and lee-sides to any wind. Rabbits too in 

 plenty, judging by the amount of "work." How 

 eagerly the hounds dash in at the cheery " Yoi-over 

 there, yoi-over!" of the Huntsman, and — but Somer- 

 ville describes it a thousand times better than 

 we can — 



"See ! how they range 

 Dispers'd, how busily this way and that 

 They cross, examining with curious nose 

 Each Hkely haunt." 



Who that is a sportsman can help seeing it all 

 in his mind's eye as he reads these lines ? Does 

 he not feel in his nostrils the delightful (to a fox- 

 hunter, at any rate) smell of the freshly fallen 

 leaves on the damp earth ? Can he not see the 

 cheerily waving, and almost speaking (by their 

 expression) " sterns," flashing about in the bracken 

 and the brambles, and perhaps tipping themselves 

 with red as they do so ? Can he not hear the long- 

 drawn " Yooi ov-er there," and the " Yeu try in 



^ Vide p. 114. 



