Lord Spencer s Mastership. 209 



glistening liquid-atom been dissolved into thin air, than 

 " Hope begins to tell its flattering tale/' and a run is 

 pronounced to be imminent by the sanguine believer in 

 atmospheric effects. In hunting, however, nothing is 

 sure, nothing is certain. Experience shows that over 

 ground ever so parched or ever so sodden with wet, 

 hounds will sometimes fly; others be scarcely able to own 

 the line. Happily, however, for the sportsman, it may be 

 said that the motto, Nulla dies sine linea — there is " no 

 day without a line ^' — is strictly applicable to hunting, 

 since no condition of soil or atmosphere can render 

 scent absolutely non-existent. For lack of it the pace 

 may be exasperatingly slow ; but many a stout fox has 

 been " walked '' to death, and many a mile of grass, with 

 fences to match, been crossed during the operation. As 

 " half a loaf is better than no bread," so is a pottering 

 run better than no sport. The evening before a frost is 

 looked upon by many as a sure harbinger of good things 

 to come; but it too often fails in performance to render 

 the promise much to be depended upon. The same may 

 be said of falling snow — a time of much hope with certain 

 observers, and likewise of much disappointment. What 

 is sauce on one day for the hunter, is poison on another; 

 and the explanation thereof baffles the experienced 

 sportsman, who learns to attach little credit to all out- 

 ward and visible signs, be they of weatlier or aught else. 

 Does the mystery lie in the wind, the state of the atmo- 

 sphere, the nature of the soil, the hound, or in the fox 

 himself? We know that scent consists of particles of 

 extreme fineness, which when given off float lightly in 

 the air for a time, and then vanish ; whilst some coming 

 in contact with the ground are united with the exhala- 



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