60 EACECOUESE AND COVEET SIDE. 



about half-past one o'clock on an afternoon in 

 mid-September, when to my sm^prise I saw a red 

 coat in the distance. What an astonishing run 

 the cub must have given them ! I thought. The 

 hounds were to have met at Dunlow, miles away, 

 and that, moreover, at half-past five in the 

 morning. It being so, and I had the master's 

 own authority for the statement as to the pack, 

 what were they doing here at this time ? 



" Is Mr. Hatfield here ? " I inquired of the 

 wearer of the red coat, as I cantered up, and 

 found him seated on his horse in the road by the 

 plantation, just through the park gate. I wanted 

 to see Hatfield, and knew that he, the hunt 

 secretary and most regular of attendants, would 

 be out. 



*'I dunno him," was the reply; and I scanned 

 the speaker. One does not want or expect a 

 servant out cub-hunting to be particularly smart. 

 He need not have a pretty new pink coat, and 

 a pair of absolutely spotless breeches ; but it is 

 possible to be neat without being smart, to be 

 clean and tidy in the midst of wholesome dirt, 

 and these possibilities were far from being 

 exemplified in the person of this whip — for such 

 he was. An ill-fitting saddle and badly put on 

 bridle decked a carelessly-groomed horse. Eusty 

 stirrup-irons held ragged boots, and altogether 



