32 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



sporting undergraduates — Oxford lies but a few miles 

 distant — manage to see a good deal of hound work done. 



At length an unearthly shriek — a kind of cross be- 

 tween a view-hallo and an Indian war-whoop — from a 

 shepherd whose flock of matronly-looking Southdown 

 ewes scamper aimlessly hither and thither across the 

 lush, emerald-green water-meadows. 



" T' owd hotter jumped out o' the water jest loike a 

 gert rot, and runned acrost meadows to the brook, very 

 nigh scaring the loife out o' me and t' owd ships," ex- 

 claims the yokel in a breathless and disjointed manner 

 to the Master. 



The flow of oratory of the worthy guardian of muttons 

 is drowned by a volume of music which suddenly escapes 

 from the bell-like throats of the pack, and at a pace 

 which proclaims a burning hot trail, hounds stream over 

 the grass. 



Now commences the most dashing and exciting part 

 of the hunt. For the greater part of a mile the trail 

 leads up a sedgy, willow-fringed brook, and more than 

 once the quarry is " gazed " running along the bank at 

 no great distance ahead of hounds, which drive him at 

 a great racket. Despite the efforts of the field to keep 

 on terms with the flying pack, the latter is ever well 

 ahead, while the sinuosities of the stream, intervening 

 clumps of sallows and other obstructions to the perspec- 

 tive, often veil the movements of hounds completely. 



Suddenly the distant music ceases abruptly, and when 

 heard again a few minutes later the gladsome melody 

 seems to proceed from well out in the meadows lying to 

 the right. Lutra has discovered his mistake in leaving 

 the main stream, and is now racing for his life across 



