CHAPTEE VII. 



BARKBY GORSE TO TILTOK. 



R. BROMLEY DA- 

 VENPORT, your 

 vivid lines once 

 stood nie in good 

 stead — when you 

 set every hunting- 

 man in Enghmd 

 aglow with your 

 prophetic idyll of 

 " A gallop from 

 Ranksboro' Gorse," 



'J and in the foUow- 



: J%^ ing week my feeble 



^'^''l^>'35^^^fcl^^'''''V^^?^''''^-^'^' pen was exercised 

 ■^^^^m^W^^ '/■' .'■■"'' ■■• in telling how the 



augury had been 

 fulfilled, tlie allegory reduced to fact, in the great Ranks- 

 boro' Run of January 13th, 1877. There must surely be 

 something in the coincidence that now again I had been 

 revelling overnight in tlie power and thrill of your pic- 

 ture of Foxhunting (painted a few months ago in the 



