168 THE BEST SEASON ON PtECORD. 



position.) But lookers-on, who proverbially — and, in 

 foxhunting at least, veritably — see much of the game, 

 declare that after this second batch of twenty or so, came 

 another wide interval, and then a prolonged stream of red 

 and black dots covering at one time quite three miles of 

 undulating pasturage. This authority might have told 

 me more of what went on, amid the moving mass of 

 which he formed a late but lusty atom — had not his 

 attention been distracted by an incident that startled and 

 terrified him not a little. So deep and dirty was the 

 ground after the showers of the day and the storms of 

 the Aveek, that to jump out of a furrow was a labour, to 

 jump into one was a risk — enhanced by the pace and 

 augmented by the deep plunge of those who had passed 

 before. Landing into a quagmire, my atom extricated 

 himself, with difficulty and a prolonged flounder ; and 

 rode in jiibilaunce up the mead. But a crash and a dull 

 flop caught his ear ; and, ever ready to render help to a 

 comrade in distress, he turned round in his saddle — to 

 behold a citizen of Leicester and his trusty steed rofling 

 over and over each other in the deep brown mud. All 

 right ! The man was up again, and so Avas the horse ; 

 philanthropy might be cast to the winds ; and our 

 friend sped on, with all the haste that a full-blown 

 hunter, aided by a long pair of spurs but incommoded by 

 sixteen stone of exacting horsemanship, could command. 

 But, casting one glance more over his shoulder, the 

 Levite was in the instant airain the irood Samaritan. 

 Round he came in a jifley ; and galloped back to where 

 the fallen one was now to be seen writhing in apparent 



