76 THE BEST SEASON ON KECORD. 



Bat I have wandered away from hounds at that most 

 critical, most crucial of all moments — the start. The 

 bustling ladies are getting together over the wet rough 

 meadow that bounds the covert ; and men are rapidly 

 trooping forth from the wood — mentally girding up their 

 loins and bracing their sinews for the coming tussle. 

 That they all pull back in their tracks as hounds swing 

 suddenly across their very faces directly the earliest fence 

 is jumped, is, I venture to think, as much a credit to their 

 own perception of the necessities of the moment as a 

 tribute to discipline and daily habit. Had the fall of 

 their squadron leader been the signal for an immediate 

 halt, they could not have reined in shorter. The white 

 horse is caught and the rider remounted ere the forward 

 movement is, almost instantly, renewed. A horrid fall 

 it looked, as the two heads ploughed the field together — 

 that of the weaker mortal undermost. But he was 'listed 

 when men were held to be men, even at forty — and 

 when twenty years' service was believed to season good 

 leather, not to wear it out. So the crumpler makes 

 little difference, save as a wholesome lesson to the grey 

 — who will take care not to repeat the offence of flmcying 

 himself still in Northshire, where rails will break easily 

 and hedges are to be brushed haphazard. Over short 

 chopping ridges and wet sedgey furrows we are fairly set 

 going. Who knows how long it may last ? Who knows 

 but we are merely hurrying over one rough field that we 

 may have to pull up in the next ? Who is such a fool 

 as to be left behind 1 Who will not make the most of 

 what the gods give him — and take his fate, or punish- 



