68 THE BKST SEASOX OX EECORD. 



cause of needless terror. Tlirougli the lieavy gate and 

 over the rough and broken pasture — the already slender 

 band of riders are bearing uphill towards the little pack, 

 the latter beating horses yard by yard. A clean oxer, a 

 scratchy bullfinch where the ox-rail lies broken, or a single 

 flight of timber — there are three courses open to you, 

 some fifty yards apart. The Count seizes the first, Capt. 

 Smith, Mr. A. Brocklehurst, and M. Deschamps the last ; 

 while three or four others squeeze under the tree, and 

 recover their dangling hats as best they may. A steep 

 sudden dip in the ground, with a grass-covered rivulet 

 running below — a horse half blown, with an indifferent 

 mouth and a pronounced aversion to anything flapping 

 about him — these scarcely make up the time and circum- 

 stance that we would willingly select for the pastime of 

 fishing for chimney-pots. (Oh, who will join a society — 

 it must be influential and numerous — for donning caps, 

 for dofting swallowtails in favour of lengthy flaps, and for 

 relegating breeches tapes to — the provinces?) 



Now again the going, though deep and tiring, is 

 smooth and lair. The great grass fields are some forty 

 acres apiece ; the ridge-and-fnrrow for a wonder lies all 

 the right way ; each valley has an easy fence, each gentle 

 rise discloses hounds just gliding over the next — or gives 

 the rear guard a similar glance at those riding in the 

 van. Gallop as you can, and squeeze as you will, you 

 may keep pace with the tail hounds that left Baggrave 

 witli or behind 3'ou ; but not an inch will you or they 

 gain on those racing couples in front. There is little to 

 tell of these two miles after Baggrave covert — as far as 



