FOX- HUNTING IN VIRGINIA. 541 



was three hundred yards away, a trifling affair, and over it 

 Reynard led like a bird on the wing. Like screaming eagles 

 swooping on their prey, followed the fiercely clamorous 

 pack. Pell-mell the horsemen pressed upon their heels; 

 and over we went. . 



Here followed a run perhaps never surpassed, in the 

 hunting-field. Gallantly did Reynard maintain his lead; 

 gallantly followed the flying pack, and gallantly the horse- 

 men rode. As the last quarter of the stretch was reached, 

 Vanity showed three lengths in front of Juno, who just 

 maintained her place at the head of the pack, and, as it 

 were, by inches she began to close the gap between her- 

 self and Reynard's brush, which was still flaunting defi- 

 antly in the breeze. She had crawled up to within forty 

 yards of him, with several hundred yet to run before the 

 Broad Rock was gained. She was now twenty yards ahead 

 of the pack, Juno just clear of the bunch. The horsemen 

 were well closed up to within from fifty to one hundred 

 yards of the pack. In nearly this position, this splendid 

 panorama closed by Reynard leaping both fences of the 

 highway and sweeping directly across the face of the Broad 

 Rock, gaining cover at the head of a bad rocky ravine lead- 

 ing to the banks of Beaver Dam Creek, about two miles 

 above its mouth, where it falls into Goose Creek. 



Going over the fence, the horsemen gathered in the road 

 at the Broad Rock, and there was a pause, while the chase 

 developed its future course. My father and his friend sat 

 side by side on their horses, following the pack by the . 

 sonorous music of their furious cry, and gazing intently 

 into the woods toward the run. 



" They are going up Beaver Dam," said Mr. Jenkins. 



"Aye," said my father, turning old Alice's head down 

 the public road; and remarking, "We can get in at Mount 

 Hope," he jogged off, so as to keep nearly abreast of the 

 chase as it rushed roaring along the meanderings of the 

 rock-bound stream. 



The object of my horsemanship was to keep as near as I 

 could to my father's side, his friend, Mr. Jenkins, riding 



