BARKBY GQKSE TO TILTON. ;65 



acres, immediately adjoins tlie well-known Barkby Holt, 

 a green and muddy lane alone separating the two. The 

 slightest possible breeze was blowing from the west ; 

 and the Master marshalled his field on the windward 

 side. Not until every rider had taken his place, were 

 hounds thrown into covert ; thus the good fox at home 

 was well on his legs before the time of trial came, and 

 then he was free to travel whither he would upon the 

 wind. The first cheer starts him off; the first scream 

 sets the lively ladies of Quorndon romping on his foot- 

 prints. Two ant-hilly grass fields give them room to 

 settle and time to close up — while, as thickly packed as 

 antelope on the veldt, the herd of horsemen bound over 

 the low rail fencing and pick their way hurriedly, or 

 gallop right recklessl}^, over the knotted turf. Now the 

 pent throng squeezes through a gate, to cross the one 

 acre of fallow that tliey will see for many a mile ; now 

 they dribble one by one through a low gap that we 

 recognize only too fearfully and well. A deep little 

 ditch is set under the grass at the exact distance to 

 catch a free jumping horse — and often as we have had to 

 cross it in hurrying away from Barkby Holt, Ave have 

 never known the tiny but too effectual trap to be with- 

 out its victims. The ^Master and Mr. Gerald Paget are 

 claimed for its own to-day — and a fall in such a gallop 

 would seem to be fatal to loss of place more certainly 

 even tlian in a National Hunt Steeplechase ! * For 



"" Eeaders will lemeiaber that in the Grand National Hunt Steeplechase 

 (1883) in the neighbourhood of jMelton, v,ith twenty-three starters, even the 

 winner fell once, and refused once. 



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