CHAPTER XL 



SPORT IN SEASON. 



OULD foxliimters have bidden a merrier Christ- 

 mas than that of 1883, with its quiet mild 

 weather, its daily companionship, its whole- 

 some and corrective exercise, and its very antagonism to 

 the seasonable misery of icy idleness ? Day by day we 

 have made merry and felt happy in a fashion more 

 healthy than anything offered by the wassail bowl or the 

 irrational and indigestible pudding. A scarlet coat is 

 better than red berries ; and the misletoe went out of 

 date with hunting the slipper. Hunting the fox is the 

 truest Christmas pastime — and in this we could indulge 

 to the very eve of the feast-day, under the happy con- 

 ditions of calm warm air, dry skins, and almost dry 

 ground. 



It would be impossible to conceive three pleasanter 

 hunting days than the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 

 preceding Christmas — with Sir Bache Cunard, the Quorn, 

 and the Cottesmore respectively. No great event came 

 of any of them. But merely to be riding about was a 

 luxury ; and to know that the season was un-Christmas- 

 like was in itself a boon. 



