266 Tally ho. 



foxes, but they had been disturbed in the earlier part 

 of the morning. Thence we proceeded to Browns- 

 over, and drew the likely looking spinnies blank, as 

 well as one or two other promising covers. Next we 

 tried the Osier-bed, which usually provides a fox, but 

 we were doomed to disappointment, for it did not 

 hold one to-day. Then we jogged on to Cester^s 

 Over, with the same ill-fortune; but on reaching 

 New bold Kevel we came upon the scent of a fox, who 

 had gone away evidently a long time before we 

 arrived, and we could do nothing with him. Short as 

 our gallop was, it was long enough to bring several to 

 grief, one good man coming down at a flight of rails, 

 and several others hitting them hard, but it did not 

 concern me, as my horse made no such blunder, 

 getting over the difl&culty as cleverly as a Master of 

 Arts. At another flight of very stiff rails, with a deep 

 ditch on the further side, a young fellow who put his 

 nag at them in right good form took a header clean 

 over the rails, and down to the bottom of the deep, 

 deep ditch, his horse having stopped dead when he 

 got up to the rails, thus getting rid of his rider 

 without saying " With your leave/^ or " By your leave.^' 

 Every one was compelled to laugh at this exhi- 

 bition, which bordered on the ridiculous, but it was 

 rather rough on the youngster, who went at them 

 with a will. I witnessed another disaster about this 

 time, a horse falling on the road with a heavy man on 

 him, literally ploughing up the ground, cutting his knees 

 worse than ever I saw done before, the skin hanging 

 down in strips as broad as the palm of a hand. The 

 rain having now commenced, and the afternoon be- 

 coming cold and foggy, I turned my head homewards. 



