110 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



takes to record the fact, the pack is out of the plantation 

 and streaming across the veld at a pace that proclaims a 

 breast-high scent. 



The Master, huntsman, and perhaps a dozen of the 

 " field " get well away with hounds, and the ladies hold 

 their own with the best of us. In parts the high, rank 

 vegetation of the veld reaches well above the saddle- 

 girths, hiding completely from view the waving sterns 

 of the flying pack, and galloping through this rough veld 

 " grass " and sage bush is rendered dangerous by innu- 

 merable antbear earths, meerkat holes, and other horse 

 traps quite invisible from the saddle. It is little less 

 than marvellous, however, the manner in which the 

 native-bred horses, more especially the Basuto ponies, 

 dodge these pitfalls by jumping over, or swerving to 

 one side of them. But mark ! Hounds — which might 

 almost be covered by the proverbial sheet — turn off right- 

 handed and point for 3^^onder Dutch farm, round which 

 is built a high and roughly constructed stone wall. The 

 hunt ponies have been schooled over every kind of 

 obstacle and jump like deer ; but a good number of the 

 horses ridden by the " field " have never been over any- 

 thing of more importance than the average spruit or 

 nullah, and at least two-thirds of the hunt go off at a 

 tangent before the wall is reached. The master and 

 huntsman fly the obstacle girth and girth, and the ladies, 

 following their " lead," manage to get over safely. It 

 was " touch and go " with one of them, however, as her 

 galloway pecked badly on landing, and very nearly 

 deposited his fair rider in to a prickly pear bush. One man 

 comes a " cropper," but on the right side of the wall, 

 and, although a little stream of scarlet trickling from a cut 



