HORSE AND HOUND 287 



especially the events of the chase for which they have 

 gathered ; but even at a Bank Holiday meet they must 

 come first : the scene belongs to them. Even though they 

 may miss the best, they will hardly acknowledge it. 

 They are met in front of the generous house set in a 

 generous English scene ; and there is some leisure to 

 disentangle the quality of horse and hound and rider. 

 Here is a Shetland, there is a Welsh pony, and this 

 proudly carries Pamela, famous for her display of lan 

 guage when she was made Master for the day, at the 

 annual pony hunt. Perhaps there is also present the 

 small boy whom she abused as a &quot; something, some 

 thing tadpole,&quot; when he rode too near her hounds. The 

 horses are not the mere thoroughbreds desired more for 

 the gallop than foi leppin by urban visitors to the Shires. 

 Some, indeed, will obviously be most at their ease if 

 the hounds cannot escape far from the coverts. 



The sixteen couples of hounds may well be called a 

 mixed pack. You may find packs in the Shires, where 

 every hound looks as if he were a candidate for prize 

 honours at Peterboro ; and you may wonder whether 

 this is as it should be. Some remember a type of lemon- 

 coloured hound, wholly tireless, keen in scent, and clever 

 as the fox he chases ; and as he looks at the exaggerated 

 &quot; cat feet &quot; and the uniform pattern he asks whether the 

 show has not bred his intelligence and nose and perhaps 

 other virtues out of the foxhound as beyond all question 

 it has been bred out of the fox-terrier. This is as it may 

 be. These hounds, if it may be said, are not so very 

 much more uniform than the horses. Two are almost 

 white, keep their heads low, and have the shagginess 

 almost of a rough-haired terrier. Are they any the worse 

 for that ? There is one dog at any rate that has lost none 

 of his proper qualities. He is carried and is no burden 



