THE OPEXIXG DAY. 37 



with a cuticle of inoixlinate thickness if they have hunted 

 long in the country without their sense of right and 

 wrong being touched on this head. 



But of the hunt, which had now been going steadily 

 on for about an hour, and had all but reached Mr. 

 Westley-Richards' Spinnies above Asliwell. As hounds 

 dwelt for a moment under the feet of hard-jumpers, a 

 shrill view holloa came up from the valley. " Fred's 

 holloa," exclaimed the executive — and when a second 

 whip throws his voice it means, of course, the run fox 

 (or instant execution). Sure enough, the run fox 

 (already pronounced by a villager to be " done to 

 nothing ") had struggled down the hillside before another 

 section of the rearguard, and had crossed the railway 

 opposite the village of Teigli. The eager field made a 

 momentary check by smothering the fox's line as they 

 trooped under the railway — but. In a very few minutes 

 more, hounds were mouthing and mumbling In a ditch 

 beside a farmhouse — and a right good sporting run had 

 ended as It should. An hour and twenty-five minutes 

 was the average computation : and the distance from 

 point to point (Gartree Hill to Teigh) is close upon 

 seven miles. The scent, a curious rather than a 

 burning one, was nevertheless sufficiently good for 

 hounds to run fast and unassisted. At no time did it 

 seem to carry them broadly across a field — as would a 

 breast-high scent which each hound can reach ; yet the 

 pace was fully that of a fast hunting-run. 



It was Avell on in the afternoon before Thorpe 

 Trussels was drawn ; and quite dark when hounds 



