"all too sweet to last." 369 



ing such an opinion. Chance gave me a capital place 

 at the find, so of course, as o. fresh man, I took care 

 to get a good start. A splendid open glade was 

 before me, a good-looking country in the distance, 

 hounds going with a burning scent like a hurricane, 

 myself on a thorough-bred that could, when asked, 

 run a bit on the flat — what could a man ask for more 

 this side of Heaven ! The horse I was on cared nothing 

 about the pace, and I only thought, if this was forest- 

 hunting, no man need wish for any other. I had heard 

 of bogs, had been in one occasionally with the King's 

 hounds, but those were black, ungentleman-like loohing 

 traps ; not so the beautiful sward I was racing over. 

 Presently I heard, " Ware hog 1^'' behind me; "hold 

 hard ! " It never occurred to me that I was the party 

 warned, and the pace was too good to look back. In a 

 few strides I was up to my horse's fetlocks ; in a few 

 seconds more up to his girths, with the pleasing convic- 

 tion that if there ivas a bottom it was a pretty consider- 

 able way to it. Seeing a wide expanse of the same 

 delectable green sward before me, that I now, to its 

 heart's content, cursed for its treachery, as Daniel 

 O'Rourke did the black eagle; and moreover, not 

 knowing how far it might last, I imprudently tried to 

 turn my horse round ; but a regular Hampshire chaw- 

 bacon, with more sense that myself, called out, " Lay 

 the whip into 'un, and coom straight out." Now, the 

 laying the whip into 'un could only aifect the head, 

 neck, withers, and loins of my horse, all other parts 

 being secured from such a visitation by the New Forest 

 hasty-pudding. The spurs, however, went to work, and 

 no small share of resolution on the part of my nag 

 brought us through, both blowing like two grampuses. 



VOL. I. B B 



