8 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



with tremendous force, smashing his skull and driving his 

 face into the ground. 



" It was the middle of January when Nunn was killed; 

 and a fortnight after the funeral we hunted again, the 

 first whip carrying the horn, under a temporary com- 

 mittee, for a couple of months. 



" Next season Furlong, from the Burstover, took the 

 mastership, bringing his own whips and engaging a pro- 

 fessional huntsman. This huntsman was one of the slow, 

 try-back,' family-coachman sort, and although, thanks 

 to a succession of good-scenting days in the early part of 

 the season, we had fair sport, the proceedings seemed very 

 dull after Nunn's brilhance. 



" Furlong brought a few hounds of his own, but took 

 over the greater part of Nunn's pack, and even these 

 seemed affected by the changed spirit of things. Old 

 Marksman in particular was not like the same animal; 

 from being the oracle of the pack he became a mute, 

 listless shirker; so markedly so that Furlong talked of 

 putting him down, and the huntsman remarked with a 

 grin, ' So this is the famous Marksman ! ' 



" The hounds had not been in Canonby Whin at all that 

 season until one day late in December, nearly a year after 

 Nunn's death, when they met at the ' Black Bull,' which, 

 as you know, is a very few miles from there. There was 

 no scent in the morning, and we had done nothing but 

 potter about until we came to the Whin in the afternoon. 

 There I got on to my second horse, a brown, five-year-old 

 thoroughbred called Pride of Tyrone, which I had bought 

 out of Ireland for a longer price than I could really afford, 

 but which I confidently expected him to recover with 

 interest as a steeplechaser : I even cherished golden 



