6 THE BEST SEASON ON EECORD. 



tlie day, viz., The Master (Viscount Valentia), Lord 

 Henry Bentinck, Col. Molyneux, Messrs. Lambton, 

 Harter, Leigli, Harrison, Griffith, Dewar, De Vase, &c. 



The meet had been AVeston Peat Pits (about a dozen 

 miles from Oxford) ; and three foxes had been set afoot 

 during the morning. The hospitable portals of Bletch- 

 ington were then thrown open ; and when a fresh start 

 w^as made, it was with a marked and general improve- 

 ment of appearances and w^eather. Weston Wood lies 

 on the lower flat beneath Bletchington ; two o'clock was- 

 the time ; a fox was up as soon as hounds were in ; the 

 wdiip viewed him away at once over the road ; the pack 

 was out in a moment ; and the field was brisk and lively 

 as a field could be. Down the brookside meadow raced 

 the Bicester ladies (as pretty and even a pac]v as man 

 might wish to see) ; the brook divided a heavy plough 

 from the gayer grass ; men wdio knew their whereabouts 

 took the plough, and if Ignorance did not quickly accept 

 the lead, he was likely enough soon to be floundering 

 in that marshy brook. For with strange perversity 

 Reynard ciuickly changed over to the newly turned 

 arable — and the brook was a class of its own — running- 

 under a bank of reeds, and supplemented by a ditch 

 beyond. Truly they waste a great deal of ground in 

 Bicestershire when they build, or neglect, their fences in 

 such needless complication. Is it as a protest against 

 this, think you, that, as I am told, such a very small 

 number of the Oxford undergraduates nowadays lend 

 their countenance to fox hunting? Surely not. 



Another wood was in front. At least it looked like 



