CHAPTEE XXI. 



DRYIXG up! 



^ll^MPORTANT and valuable a section of the year as 

 ^mi March may represent to numerous interests, I 

 :p^ fancy many Masters of Hounds, owners of horses, 

 and certainly all grooms, would gladly see it wiped off the 

 calendar. Huntsmen might not ; for they would cheerfully 

 hunt all the year round, making no bones of the state of 

 the ground, caring nothing for their own, but ready to 

 hunt a fox at any and all times as a bulldog is ready to 

 fight. Otherwise they, too, would willingly throw up the 

 sponge, and surrender the game as not worth the candle — 

 when it becomes a matter of a fox leaving no more scent 

 on a fallow than a swallow that has skimmed it, and 

 Avhen every road or gateway insists upon hounds throwing 

 up their heads instanter. This is the time (when isn't it, 

 though 1) to thank our stars we belong to a grass country, 

 or on the other hand to bring appreciation to bear on the 

 woodlands. The turf still holds plenty of wet for a scent ; 

 while the woods will, of course, remain undried till 

 Midsummer. Even on the grass the huntsman is far 

 more directly the motive agent now than at any other 



