38 Tally ho, 



ing animal, recently purchased at a very long figure ; 

 Major Whyte-Melville in very good form ; Mr. Lub- 

 bock apparently all over tbe performer wliicb report 

 pronounces him to be ; Lady Florence Dixie on a bay 

 horse as ^^ fit as a fiddle^'; Mrs. Stanley well-mounted, 

 well-dressed — her habit fitting to perfection, cut to 

 the sixteenth of an inch of the proper length, a smiling 

 face set ofi" by a neat tall hat, a white cravat with a 

 plain gold pin, the corner of a white pocket-handker- 

 chief just peeping out from between the buttons of her 

 blue habit, presenting as perfect a picture of the 

 " huntress ^' of modern days as eye could desire to 

 rest on. 



And in addition to these are Sir John Lister Kaye, 

 Mr. Creyke, Mr. Parker, and a field of from 150 to 200 

 well-mounted men, of whom there is no time to take 

 further note, as Neale trots away at a sharp pace to 

 Ranksboro^ Gorse, the oft-renowned meet of the 

 Cottesmore, which stands on a gently sloping hill- 

 side in the very centre of the cream of this beautiful 

 country, and is pronounced by Lord Wolverton to be 

 the best meet in the world and the prettiest sight, as 

 it assuredly is. " See Naples and die " is the boastful 

 proverb of the Italians. See Ranksboro^ Gorse and 

 live, I say — if you can — at the tail of the Cottesmore 

 in a forty-minutes' spin across this grand country, 

 taking the " Whissendine " in your way and then you 

 will know what the perfection of hunting is. 



" Halloo in ! halloo in ! '^ cries Neale, and the 

 hounds dash into cover with a will. Then mounting 

 ^^from the moist meadow to the withered hill,'' I 

 survey the prospect, and am fully in accord with Lord 

 Wolverton in respect to the position of the cover and 



