106 THE BEST SEASON ON RECORD. 



course ! So the party rGmounted and turned along tlie 

 line with gladdened hearts — to find their comrade's foot- 

 prints marking the greensward whence he had made his 

 jump. They couldn't stay there all day — so the fun 

 began. Two horses refused ; and a dozen at once 

 followed suit. The second whip and his steed then rolled 

 in without actually parting : the Master, after putting up 

 with one refusal, took his hunter by the head, and flxirly 

 squeezed him over — in a fashion that few^ of our genera- 

 tion have strength, hands, and horsemanship to imitate 

 (but that it would have warmed Col. Thomson's heart to 

 witness). The huntsman's journey in was the crowning 

 result of many efforts ; but, instead of encouraging those 

 who in breathless anxiety w^atched his clamber back from 

 forehead-band to saddle, it went far to confirm their first 

 impressions of the undesirability of the attempt ; and 

 Mr. Cecil Chaplin was his only follower. Two or three 

 others plunged somehow along the bed of the brook, to 

 gain the railway bank and the gate on the opposite side. 

 The rest found there was " no liiuTy after all " — and, 

 bnnging united weight and discretion to bear, caught 

 hounds an easy quarter of an hoar afterwards. Then we 

 could see them hunt on under Market Overton to Barrow 

 Gorse, run back fairly fast to Woodwell Head, and confess 

 themselves beaten about midway between that wood and 

 Coston Covert — after nearly four liours' patient and 

 often pretty hunting. 



The Quorn had quite a wonderful run the same day ; 

 and though they met in a somewhat unfashionable corner 

 of their country, they found a fox to take them almost 



