"v^r'^ .-J: ■ V ' ' ' Ik ' Tf* « 4' ' lit J ■*'• liiB^Hiiifeflii ^^jSSJSSSSSJSSJsSS&SS&isssSS^^^ SSSs««^*S>,^;>tSSilSS^SSS»SSS^^ 6? b *^'~~' ^ o TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 3 9090 014 536 185 V Webster Family Library of Vet3rinar>' Medie'ift© Cummir.gs School of Veisrinsry Medicine at TufiS University 200 VVactboro Road North Granon, MA 01536 THE BEBT SEASON ON RECORD, Jlti^iratcb hn ]Jcnmssioit to ij.ll.i). tbc prince of wlaics. 7« mcdiiun Zvo, clotli, price \is. 6d. THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. ELEVEN SEASONS' SKIMMINGS. By CAPT. PENNELL-ELMHIRST (" Brooksby.") With Illi'strations Coloured and Plain, By JOHN STURGESS. -iv|\\:j^ 1"\ m\^^/ '^ '^ THE BE8T SEASON ON BEGOBD (SELECTED AXD KEPUBLISHED FKOM "THE FIELD") CAPTAIN PENNELL-ELMHIRST ("BROOKSBY") AI'THOR OF "TUE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE" WITII ILLUSTRATIONS, COLOURED AND PLAIN, JOHN STURGESS LONDON GEOEGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL NEW YORK: 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE 1884 < LdNDON : BRADBURV, AGNEW, & C.)., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE A Preface at Home and Abroad 1 CHAPTER II. The Leap on the Thorn ^ CHAPTER III. An Autumn Gallop 17 CHAPTER IV. The Opening Day 2t> CHAPTER V. Men and Manners 42 CHAPTER VI. Baggeave 52 CHAPTER VII. Barkby Gorse to Tilton 62 CHAPTER VIII. Hill and Dale 74 CHAPTER IX. A Two Days' Break 8G CHAPTER X. Barkby to Tilton again i>l ^'^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. PAGE Sport in Season » 98 CHAPTER XII. The Old Year Out 110 CHAPTER XIII. The New Year In 117 CHAPTER XIY. One Week's Work 132 CHAPTER XV. E. G 145 CHAPTER XYi;. Hearsay 152 CHAPTER. XVII. „ The John 0' Gaunt Gallop 163 CHAPTER XVIU. Harder and Harder 172 CHAPTER XIX. . Old Friends . • 178 CHAPTER XX. The Curate in Spring 1!)1 CHAPTER XXI. Drying Up ! 203 LIST OF FULL PAGE ILLUSTEATIONS. "Forty to One against Bendigo" .... Frontifj'iece, " The sturdy brown horse jumped as high as he could, and as far as he could" ........ To face 2)ag<' -ii " Eeynabd don't seem to see it. ' Take those Dogs away — or I won't play'" To fdcr -page 10:> " Half a dozen others filled in the picture with success or disaster " , To face pcKji: 1.51> THE BEST SEASON ON KECOED. CHAPTEK I. A PREFACE AT HOME AND ABROAD. ^- %>^5i^ t^' -r^i^r 'A III,, _,=^ _.^^^^.^=J'^e;"Jn^RIDAY, October 12tli, ^Yas ' ' ^ ~~ our first eleven o'clock meet, and the first muster in becoming force. The Quornwere at Gaddesby Hall ; and a pleasant little field, still wearing the garb of sober autumn, accompanied the pack to Mr. Cheney's Spinnies. Business was meant from the very first — the young hounds were to have blood, and 2 THE BEST SEASON ON RECORD. siicli tiny coverts must of necessity throw most of tlie work outside their boundaries. And all the country round Gaddesby Is very charming when hounds cross it — •even before the leaves have fallen or the herbage has lost its summer luxuriance. The inclosures are all grass, the fences perhaps a little strong for nerves that are yet scarcely tuned to play. But the gates are ample and handy ; and there were men enough to-day to ride through a rail or to point a ready alternative at any moment. Between Gaddesby and Queniboro' especially, gates provide a happy release from difficulties otherwise insuperable ; for the thorn fences grow to a height above ambition or daring, in even their rarest and extreraest forms. Now, besides being big and forbidding, they •constituted so many leafy screens which constantly hid hounds from sight when only a field away ; and our galloping in search was often very vague and haphazard. A stralo-ht fox and a stronir scent would have lost us all more than once. But foxes do not always run straight in October (the happy succession of gallops two years ago forming the proving exception) ; and so, though we rode and jumped, loitered and shirked, for upwards of two hours on Friday afternoon, it was almost entirely within the little triangle of Gaddesby, Barkby Holt and Queni- boro' (each point at about two miles apart from the others). The day was as hot and sultry as any of the indifferent harvest weather of the year ; many horses still carried their summer coats, while many riders had gone so far in deference to the occasion as to swathe them- selves at least In hunting waistcoats and winter flannel. A PREFACE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 3 The morning draw was the plantation that is best entitled to the name of The Gaddesby Spinney ; and among those who rode away from it, or appeared soon afterwards, were Mr. Coupland and ]\liss Webster, Mr. Merthyr and Lady Theodora Guest, Mr. and Mrs. Pen- nington, Mrs. Sloane Stanley, Capt. and Miss M. Camp- bell, General Chippindall, Capt. Grrimstone, Messrs. Cheney, A. Barclay, Beaumont, Middleton, Alston, Thornhill, 0. Paget, J. Cradock, G. Webster, R. Martin, with perhaps a dozen others — supplemented by a con- siderable detachment of grooms, many of whom were zealously employed for the benefit of the farmers in schooling; horses that lonir airo cost their masters the price at all events of perfection. The fox that took them hence to break the ice (a most inapplicable parallel in such weather) with five hot minutes to the villaore — and to die in its outskirts — was old and fat as many a chosen stag of Exmoor. He would have little of the open country — though that little sufficed to put men and horses more at ease. A few blind fences had been jumped ; hounds had been seen to run ; and never a casualty had yet befallen. All that happened in tlie afternoon might in midwinter be served up in a couple of lines — though it seemed a full afternoon of merriment and pleasant sport to-day. A second fox was set going from another of Mr. Cheney's Spinnies (the one on the hillside opposite Gaddesby Tillage) ; and a roundabout, but very enjoy- able hunt, went on for a long time before this second old fox was brought to hand. At first starting men rode and 15 2 4 THE BEST SEASON ON RECORD. liouncls ran as if a great gallop were In prospect — tlie former taking plunge after plunge over the dark green fences through which the latter had disappeared from sight. Three times they started thus and three times matters steadied down to quiet hunting — FIrr and the Quorn ladles sticking to their fox through all difficulties, till about three o'clock they had him in hand near the point from which he had started. The turf just now is in admirable order ; rich and soft as velvet, after recent autumnal showers. Would that it could continue so through the five months which to us constitute the heart of the year, the soul of our fun ! Now we gaily skim the surface ; now we are shot up and over with the easiest effort of a good bold horse. By and by progress may be a deep slow labour; every juii^p a heavy trial — while hounds may be flitting phantoms, and we, the lesser fry, become lost in the shoal of struggling comrades. It is too early to say definitely avIio will be at Melton for the winter. ]\Iany houses are taken, but several rumours of coming visitors have yet to be realized. Mr. Younger is obliged to give up hunting, and Craven Lodge will probably change hands — while his beautiful stud of horses Is to be dispersed at Tattersall's on the 29th instant. Baggrave Hall Is let to Mr. Trew ; and Billesdon Coplow of ancient renown to Mr. Alston. A PREFACE AT HOME AND ABROAD. THE BICESTER. Seventeen minutes with the Bicester. Only a trifle, perhapS' — but a trifle flist and sweet, and quite the best fun that I at least have yet encountered. By no means the pick of their country, they said, and one might well believe it. For, even after a single night's soaking, the ploughs rode deep and sticky, the grass at the same time was hard, lampy and greasy, while many of the fences are broad, blind doubles of the most indefinite kind. Just the country in foct to bring a cropper, and to allow of that cropper being a rough and disagreeable one. Still, the fall was far more likely to come when you were going slow — cautiously creeping and feeling your way — than in the swing of a merry gallop, with the cry of hounds strinoino; each nerve of horse and rider to its utmost (at least so it seemed to one on whom the con- clusion chanced to be most fully forced). Bletchington and Kirklington — the two beautiful estates of Lord Valentia and Sir Henry Dashvv^ood respectively, and immediately adjoining each other — were the scene of all the earlier work and play of the day; and at least forty horsemen sauntered for some hours amid the green glades and brightly-changing woods of these picturesque domains. Who were all these representatives of the Hunt, it would be impossible for me as a casual wanderer to say. But the following few I believe I am safe in naming as taking their part in 6 THE BEST SEASON ON EECORD. tlie day, viz., The Master (Viscount Valentia), Lord Henry Bentinck, Col. Molyneux, Messrs. Lambton, Harter, Leigli, Harrison, Griffith, Dewar, De Vase, &c. The meet had been AVeston Peat Pits (about a dozen miles from Oxford) ; and three foxes had been set afoot during the morning. The hospitable portals of Bletch- ington were then thrown open ; and when a fresh start w^as made, it was with a marked and general improve- ment of appearances and w^eather. Weston Wood lies on the lower flat beneath Bletchington ; two o'clock was- the time ; a fox was up as soon as hounds were in ; the wdiip viewed him away at once over the road ; the pack was out in a moment ; and the field was brisk and lively as a field could be. Down the brookside meadow raced the Bicester ladies (as pretty and even a pac]v as man might wish to see) ; the brook divided a heavy plough from the gayer grass ; men wdio knew their whereabouts took the plough, and if Ignorance did not quickly accept the lead, he was likely enough soon to be floundering in that marshy brook. For with strange perversity Reynard ciuickly changed over to the newly turned arable — and the brook was a class of its own — running- under a bank of reeds, and supplemented by a ditch beyond. Truly they waste a great deal of ground in Bicestershire when they build, or neglect, their fences in such needless complication. Is it as a protest against this, think you, that, as I am told, such a very small number of the Oxford undergraduates nowadays lend their countenance to fox hunting? Surely not. Another wood was in front. At least it looked like A PREFACE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 7 one. But hounds swung past it at once ; and, leaving- the rough deep plough behind, emerged on to a succession of firm green fields. A strong ash pole was bound high across the only gap in a first tall bullfinch — and had not the whip and some generous bystander flung their combined weight on it till it broke, the rest of the scurry might have been a blank page to us all. Then the railway, with its two white gates opening like magic to the Sesame of the hound music. Blessed platelayer ! Gladly would we tip you — had v;c time and had we money. Hounds arc driving forward to a screaming scent ; horses are stretched to their utmost ; and October condition is beginning to speak in language unmistakable. Open water glitters in front — maybe a very Jordan — and they take but little notice of water in these parts. Ah, 'tis but an eight foot stream that would not frlo-hten us even in Leicestershire — and we may follow the huntsman. Colonel Molyneux, and Lord Henry Bentinck as nearly as we can. For to cling to the huntsman's skirts — while country and courage serve you — is no bad recipe for seeing a run in a strange land. The huntsman is not likely to know anything of the kindly part he is thus fulfilling ; and on the whole I should say it may be as well not to ask his formal permission, still less that of his master. But, depend upon it, he is, in any country and quite nine times out of ten, as near to hounds as anyone should be, and ihus if you can keep him in sight, you arc pretty certain to see a good deal of the sport. Scarcely, now, was the little brook crossed, when 8 THE BEST SEASON ON RECORD. hounds bent sliarply and suddenly back to tlie left, and soon recrossed the railway. All chance of a pomt, all hope of a long straight run were gone ; but the pack was still driving merrily. The hunt-servants readily produced a key, and the railway scarce hindered a moment. The next double was a sort of overgrown earthwork — looking, probably, ten times more for- midable now under its shroud of bramble leaf and tangle than when Christmas shall show it out in its naked ugliness. But Oxfordshire horses can decipher a ditch and a double ditch of the most misty tracing ; so Stovin and his following left it behind without loss of time or numbers. A gateway girthdeep with overnight flood let them through another stout double ; and soon, heated and panting, they were i^ushing through a narrow wood which the pack had already pierced. A few more fields, a few more gates — then to ground in Weston village — a circle almost completed — my little story told. Just time then to catch the train. Just time now to save the post. Wi CHAPTEE 11. THE LEAF ON THE THORN. TJDAY, October 19.— A \vet chilly day that '^ must have been detestable for grouse or part- vJl^^vs j-'idge driving, impossible for covert shooting, hateful at Sandown, and more miserable than all indoors. Yet for foxhunting it was quite passable, even before the vigour and comfort of the chase began. Afterwards, rain mattered nothing, and cold had no place — in a glowing frame and heart warmed to gladness. AVe shivered awhile in the morning, and we shrank under tree shelter where any was to be had — moved by the same instinct that turns a terrier into an aspen leaf as readily when his skin is wet in summer as on the coldest day in winter. For we are sybaritisli still after our summer nothingness — have not even arrived at the sensation of a new pink soaking out its first rich beauty in clammy coldness down our ribs — have not yet trudged homew^ard in tight stiff tops, as Jamely as the good horse limpiug beside us. All things -are by comparison — and a happy heart is it that keeps a granary of ill memories for ready use in bettering the present. There are drawbacks, possibly, to October hunting ; but there are very many points in its favour. 10 THE bp:st season on recoed. *' The country Is surely very blind ! " invariably follows tlie interrogatory of the friend in the street as to " what sport are you having?" Very blind it Is, undoubtedly; but let not him and others delude themselves that they will find the ditches all cut and cleaned for them by November. There will be fewer leaves on the hedges — ■ and already our horses have to pick a more meagre luncheon from them than they found ready to hand a week iM^o. But the ditches are as OTasscovered and indistinguishable as ever ; and so, if memory and prece- dent are not deceiving me, they will in a great measure continue to be till winter snow has played its part. Meanwhile this very bugbear of " blindness" immensely facilitates riding for those who w^ill try it. For instance, on this Friday in question w^e could never have kept company with hounds along the stiff hue they travelled, had there been a crowd — not because the fences were particularly blind, but because they were so strong that getting over them here and there, and galloping for gates as often as was necessary, would have been a choking and constantly disappointing process for a mass of horsemen. Timber is just as easy to see now as at any other time — and much easier to jump, for a horse now takes off sound and probably springy ground. But then timber, of course, generally occurs in isolated patches, where a tree has been felled out of the hedge- row, or a gap has been repaired. At least it is so In our blessed shire and Its neighbours. Each flight of rails of this kind only admits of one horse and rider at a time ; and, likely enough, constitutes the only jumpable place THE LEAF ON THE THORN. 11 ill a lofty biillfincli. So it is easy to understand that tlie prolonged detention of the many comrades, to whose eventual coming we look forward with true and glad anticipation, is not yet felt to be privation unalloyed. Shooting (to the delights of which even the most rabid of foxhunters need not be callous) is never, in the fashion of the day and the current phases of the sport, found more pleasantly than in the months of October and November. So 'tis allowable to bid tliem Carpe diem. And yet, methinks, I would rather have been in a wet saddle on Friday than in a wet butt or even at a hot corner. " Chill October " may be a reality ; but cold October is an inapplicable term. An old shooting- coat will turn an astonishing amount of rain ; a billycock is a much more suitable incumbrance in wet weather than a tall hat ; rough cords are much pleasanter when soaked through and through than soapy leathers (and far less likely to slip you out of your saddle into a ditch) ; and — not the smallest consideration of all to the careful and impecunious — you are not forced to choose between two alternative but equally distasteful courses, viz., either to submit a good hunting kit to the destructive influences of a thorough wetting, or to brave public opinion and set self-respect at defiance by appearing among your fellow-men the one ill-clad ruffian of the party. The best of this Friday was comprised in fifty minutes of the afternoon. By one o'clock there could scarcel}^ have been a dry skin among IMr. Coupland's fifty followers, except in the case of two or three who clung VZ THE BEST SEASON OX RECORD. to tlie worse discomfort of lieavy waterproofs. Already some of the venturesome had been entrapped in the gardens and orchards of Barkby Village, while a bad fox twisted out of scent. But a good number of dripping sportsmen were still at hand when the run began from the Long Spinney at Scraptoft. To follow the chase on paper through all its deviations would be unprofitable and uninteresting. To begin with, however, we were soon set going from the laurels of Scraptoft Hall to the outskirts of Keyham Village — a line that at any time takes some doing, and that now was only to be done by means of persistent cunning and the most artful shirking. Hounds fortunately did not move fast enough to prohibit such ignoble measures ; and so we could keep them in sight, while they left Keyham to the right, and reached the Beeby Brook. Turning here to the right, the pack at once quickened the pace, and ran the brookside for the next ten minutes — leaving Hungerton Foxholes half a field to tlie left, and checking only for a moment when crossing tlie road just before reaching it. A beautiful grass valley is this (and, indeed, all hitherto had been grass, with the exception only of a couple of small stubble fields), and strongly fenced besides. But where gates did not favour, there were clean post-and-rails to offer their help ; and so men made their way Avith little difficulty and with hearty zest. Very pretty hound work carried them on by Ingarsby station, and forward till Houghton spire was close in front. Then a holloa, possibly on a fresh fox, took them back by Mr. Carver's Spinney — and soon afterwards hounds were running round and round THE LEAF ON THE THOIJN. 13> tlie Coi)low (or ratlier tlie covert of Botany Bay) after two or three different foxes. The ride home was not a very comfortable sequel ; but what mattered that after a run so early and in itself so pretty ? Why does early lamb tempt the epicure ? Why do fair ladies prefer rather to anticipate a fashion than to incur the reproach of being behind it ? Why is there charm in spring ; and why is there tenfold power in a passion re-asserted ? This is our spring and our re-awakening. And very very glad were we now that we had scorned the promptings of our craven heart — bidding us turn homeward at midday when the weather was at its worst. Wednesday last, October 2-Jtth, brought the Bel voir to Clawson Thorns — and brought also the lamentable news that Gillard had broken his leg over-night. The casualty, it seems, was due to the upsetting of the hound van, in which it is customary to carry the pack to and from work on the Lincolnshire side. One of the horses shied across the road when descending a hill close at home ; and the van tilted over against the bank at the side. The whole staff, and Champion the Duke of Richmond's huntsman, were shot into the road ; but Gillard, who sustained a fracture of the small bone of a leg and a severe sprain of an ankle, was the only one of the party hurt. The hounds of course were rolled over in a mass ; but it is said that not one of them was the worse for it. Very naturally, the greatest sympathy is widely expressed for the hunts- man, whose misfortune at such a time is also as serious a matter to others as it is grievous to him. A bed of sick- ness and pain in November must indeed be the lot of 14 THE BEST SEASON ON RECORD. Tantalus to a man who sliould be carrying the horn with such a pack. Wednesday's was a lovely morning — if it led neither to good news nor to great sport. Bright, cool and autumnal, with the grass sparkling everywhere with glistening dewdrops, and trees and hedges radiant with every hue from darkest green to ruddiest orange. Never was a canter to covert accomplished under pleasanter auspices, never were daydreams more freely and happily prompted. The roadside turf seemed to spring to the hoofstroke ; the sharp air fanned one's cheeks into a glow and filled one's lungs with life — while the very magpies chattered two by two in merry augury. Ten o'clock was the trysting time at Clawson Thorns ; and only a slender company assembled to see wdiat treasures the casket might contain. For neither this covert, Holwell Mouth, nor Old Hills had yet been drawn — and rumour had it that the first and last con- tained quite two litters apiece. Nor was rumour on this occasion far beyond the mark. Each held at least three or four brace of foxes — and the day was quite a cubhunting, or cubkilling, one. One fat innocent paid the penalty in Clawson Thorns ; and two fell victims in the wooded basin of Old Hills — wdiere for a time every hound seemed to be running his own fox. The neigh- bourhood is evidently essentially foxhunting. Labourers from the fields, and red-dusted workers from the Holwell ironpits (for alas, iron is now found only too plenti- fully even in Leicestershire), trooped up by scores, to form a boisterous and appreciative audience round tlie THE LEAF OX THE THOEX. 15 ampliltheatre of Old Hills — wliicli tliey luidonbtedly regard as coming by every right under tlieir own pro- tectorate, in tlie interests of civilisation and of sport. The neutral cov'ert of Hoi well Month, it should be mentioned, had not held a fox : but this will be of the less consequence with two such well stocked fastnesses on either side. Arthur, the first whip and Gillard's loeum tencns^ had no other port of call set down In his sailing orders. Besides which, b}' this time his saddle was as thickly hung with fox-heads as that of a warrener's pony with rabbits. However the little Scalford Spinney was close by. There might be a fox there — and we have many a cheery memory linked with this little spot. There teas a fox — and a bold old gentleman too. But we did not have a run ; for hounds were soon once more among the cubs of Old Hills. Quite the leader, and quite one of the most appreciative members, of the little party who watched the day's pro- ceedings w^as the Rev. • — Bullen of Eastwell, now enter- m^ on his el2:litieth season with hounds — his first serious fall having taken place in his second season with his father's pack In Norfolk, only seventy-nine years ago, when he dislocated his knee. Wednesday last was his second day in the week ; and, to all appearance (and certainly If the good wishes of hundreds avail anything) he will stand work for years to come. Within the last very few winters he has ridden really hard across country. Even now his face of keen enjoyment as hounds drive their fox through covert Is a refreshing and admirable sight. He was present at Salnmanca ; and he went © 16 THE BEST SEASON OX RECORD. tliroiigli the retreat from Burgos. See what foxhunting can do towards prolonging health and life ! Another veteran was there too, of humbler degree, and whose past history is linked with less stirring events — but whose presence in the hunting field ^vas almost an equally strong protest against the power of the arch enemy Time. This venerable foxhunter hails from the village of Long Clawson ; and cannot have lived less than the three score and ten of man's allotted allowance. During the years of my brief experience I have never missed seeing this grizzly veteran at the covertside, whenever hounds have met in his Immediate neighbour- hood ; and his mount has been the same since I first knew him. An acquaintance cemented by such oppor- tunities of intercourse led me to risk the charge of im- pertinence and to inquire how long he had been carried by the same animal. " Fourteen seasons," he promptly answ^ered, " and he'll carry me, I hope, a good many more yet." The sanguine nature of the reply will, I trust, be found justified by events — and the old man and his tiny donkey in attendance on the Duke's hounds for years to come. CHAPTER III. AN AUTUMN GALLOP. ^55 HE last Friday in October was signalised by l^mG as last and cheery a gallop as is likely to ^^ mark the Quorn season '83 '84. Thirty flying minutes from Gaddesby Spinney, over some of the prettiest ground of the Hunt, and with just enough people for the requirements of good fellowship. A hun- dred might have ridden to hounds, without getting in each other's way — so hiir, open, and roomy was the country of to-day. There are times when one should write and there are times when the pen seems loaded with lead — as there are times, with most of us, when the tongue must fling, and other times (and those possibly the most inconvenient) when the tongue is clogged and intellect is stubbornly dull. The hour for telling a gallop is, perliaps, while the spirit is still aflame, before a night's unconsciousness has drifted the brain elsewhere, and, much more, before other pursuits have occupied the mind or the platitude of daily life has achieved a reaction almost approaching sadness. To-morrow we shall no longer live in the ride, no longer breathe excitement, no longer be moving cheek by jowl 18 THE BEST SEASOX ON RECOED. •\vitli comrades as jovially earnest — as madly Intent — as (may I say ?) you and I, reader. I would put you in the middle of the scurry forthwith, and send you cramming and spurring in pursuit of those lithesome ladies at once — but that every tale must have its lieginning, its characters however few, its events however tamed by fact, and its sequel however ordinary. Wherever you have been of late, you know of the soft moist days that characterised the latter half of October. The Friday in question was a full example — drizzly and almost chilly as one stood still ; wet, hot, and choking as one galloped and jumped. A few people had been at Ashby pastures when hounds were cast into it at ten o'clock ; a good many more had turned up at their leisure daring the morning — while hounds were fighting against a weak scent among falling leaves in covert, and doing their best and liveliest against shortrunning foxes outside. Gaddesby Spinney is a little copse, with the name of which my kindly readers must be only too familiar — for does it not recur as regularly and almost as profusely, autumn after autunni, as the falling of the leaf? Distinct amongst Mr. Cheney's other, and equally valued, patches of covert in the neighbourhood, the plantation that lies about half a mile westward of the village retains the denomination. And some thirty individuals, all darkly dressed and dripping, clustered at its edge in the early afternoon of Friday. The old sweet sound ! Ilarh to it, old ladies! The covert's a liny one ; a fox is a fact, a scent is more than likely, and a gallop ought to be a certaint3\ Out flashes the fact — ^^o, tally-ho, back ! and AN AUTUMN GALLOP. 19 may Tom ]\Iooiiey's ghost liaimt tlie fool on foot at tlie corner ! Ah, but that shp back was only a rusn ; alrca'ly they are screaming away at the end of the covert opposite the village; and now you may kick in and out of the rough ridge-and-furrow as fast as you can. By virtue of habit the timekeepers dive at their fobs. " One-thirty by my old clock, anything you like by the time — l)ut help me remember one-thirty." " A moment, one moment, please gentlemen ! " — and the ladies come bundling out, among and beliind the little throng that has whisked all too hastily round to the holloa. Twenty yards from the covert is a tall thorn fence, still bearing, in gorgeous red and faded green, the full foliage of summer. In a second or two every hound has dived noisily through the gaudy screen ; and the music moves lustily on — but whither the pack may be pointing is a matter of vaguest guess. The lengthy and impenetrable curtain must be outflanked one way or the other. Please yourself whether you gallop back or gallop on. Choosing onward, you will reach the Gad- desby road, and cut off the pack if it bends to the right. Slip back and you make it safe should it turn to the left. Firr, with a trusting majority after him, takes the latter course. Supposing you are for once misguided enough to put more faith in your own instinct than in that of the huntsman, you soon find yourself hammering the road, with the invisible chorus gradually waxing fainter — wdiile the stroke of your gallop and the beat of your own heart grow faster and f\ister. Leftward they've turned, by all that's brief in life and deceptive in hope ! Easy 20 THE BEST SEASON ON RECORD. enough — and often convenient enougli — it is to get into a broad road ; bnt to leave it (as pulpit and experience have taught us all our lives) is a very different task. So for a long quarter of a mile never an outlet presents itself. A gate at last — and off' to the left the gleam of a white hound darting through the second fence away. Those two fences and two great furrowed fields are made up as quickly as hot anxiety and a big striding horse can manage. In the third the two streams reunite ; and we are galloping in the train of the huntsman's party. Amid these tight little meadows and their thick leafy hedges you will see nothing of hounds unless you are on their backs. But tlie sinole red coat is the best of beacons, as it flickers brightly over eacli intervenhig barrier, or flashes like a meteor across some rising- ground. This may help you to cut into the grassy lane of the Gaddesb}" and Brooksby bridle road, and to catch the swinging handgate that opens into the wide Brooksby pastures — while Mr. Alfred Brocklehurst, on the best of timber jumpers, launches over the rails by the side, and the voice of the less venturesome pleads, Do as you would be done by and keep it open for me. Twenty couple, young and old, are driving down the wide green slope — the old ladies straining madly on the ravishing scent, the youngsters catching the new excitement that they have never felt to the full before. We ought to know this bridle path, and should have learned to open its easy gates ere now. But the three leaders find no time nor need to stop — so why should reader and I ? The fence in the valley is but a flying trifle ; though AN AUTUMN GALLOP. 21 little clue can we gather of its make and width till we see that Mr. H. T. Barclay is safely landed — and we wonder why his horse should have taken no note of the grass-grown rivulet beyond, which ours emphasized with so pronounced a peck on his knees and nose. Up the brow the next is a fair, pleasant jump, and so is the following one. But " Ware wire ! " sends a chill down our backbone as we approach tlie third — and right ghidly do we mark the pack turning along the dreaded barrier. At this time of year above all others is wire our phantom, too often our embodied, enemy. Not only is the tight stretched strand far more difficult to perceive through the leafy branches of October, but the h^t stock has not yet found a market, and the farmers are loth to weaken their fences too soon. Year by year, however, we gladly and thankfully notice a marked diminution, even during the summer, in the quantity of wire set to guard the fences of the Midlands. It is found to be so fruitful of injury to cattle, so easily knocked out of order, and withal so in- different a protection against the bull-headed pertinacity of a restless shorthorn, that its apparent economy is no longer a recommendation, and very few lines of wii-e fencing are now either fresh set or renewed. Soon may the old-fashioned oxer again reign paramount, to invite or repel with its rugged honesty — according to the measure and prompting of our years (a pun would be a vile thing even in the cause of pusillanimity) and our discretion. But the wire in question stretches only half the breadth of the field ; and with the regard for their followers that so constantly characterised the movements 23 THE BEST SEASON ON EECOED. of fux and lioiuuis tlirongliout this merry gallop, they now strike throUigli the hedge almost exactly where the metal ends — and while we behind gasp " Wire," they in front charge a hole in the fence, and sweep down the wide stretching pasture in full content. Many a gallop have I ridden in Leicestershire (as 1 e'en hope to do again) — and have seen hounds and horses go away from me more often than I should like to say — but never has the pace seemed better than now. Fast horses are galloping their utmost on the fairest turf, an easy fence comes perhaps in half a mile of galloping, gates are either standing open or fly back at once to the crop — and yet the pack is going all too fast for us unwilling- laggards, till a wandering shepherd throws a chance turn in our favour. Now we cross the " Melton and Leicester turnpike," midway between Rearsby and Brooksby ; now we have worked through a few pumping acres of newly turned arable, and now we are pushing up the big grass field for the covert of Bleakmore, marvelling why the turf seems less elastic, and the stride of our horse less conformable with ridge and furrow, than only a few brief minutes ago. Yes, lungs [and muscle are never in autunni what they may be after Christmas — and 'tis only the commencement of the lesson yet. Fondly we hug oui'selves that Bleakmore is just in front ; and that in another minute we shall be on foot beside our fat steeds — mopping our foreheads with gusto, and flinging our tongues in noisy exuberant accord on the subject of the pleasant scurry just over. Not yet. For the merry ladies race onwards along the ridge AX AL'TUMN GALLOP. 23 — leaving Bleakmore ami the railway below them on the riglit. How now for your "honest oxer'"? Here it is in its most laudable ruggedness — and, in plain Saxon, an ugly beast it is too. The rail on the take-off side is no excuse for the qualm tliat stabs you like the con- science of a schoolboy caught cribbing his task. But the high laid-fence shows its strong teeth e'en througli the heavy foliage ; a ditch of unknown dimensions lies beyond ; there is a whisper, too, of wire ; and any number of predecessors are not likely to bring things to a much lower level. The huntsman quickly makes up his mind to tlie inevitable ; but his horse (brilliantly as he carries him throughout) on this occasion whips round to take time for a second thought, Mr. Brocklehurst clears the whole difficulty a few yartls to the right, while the CambridLceshire hero takes the office from Firr, and makes a bold bid for victory. Post and rails, hedge and ditch, are covered gallantly. But beyond them all, and visible only I'rom mid air, glistens another stout ox rail. " Fortv to one aiiainst Bendigo ! " shouts his familiar friend as he himself lands in safety. But the only response to the liberal offer is a loud cracking of timber, a heavy flounder and another good man fallen on the turf, blatters are a little simpler now ; and after seeing the huntsman, Captain O'Neal, 31r. Peake, Mr. Cradock, Mr. Alston, and two or three others, surmount the less complicated difficulty, reader and I too may pull our- selves together, put our panting beast through the same process — by help of knee and heel against his well- furnished sides — and even reach the others as, after 24 THE BEST SEASON OX RECORD. another lialf mile of grass, tliey liiuldle at a LricUcgate by licarsby. The fox has swung to the left, again across the turnpike ; but with such a scent as there is to day, the pack falters neither on road nor plough, but drives forward over the little fields behind the village, whether they happen to be eddish or arable. Scarcely so with their followers. The drive is well-nigh spent, the steel is out of the iron, and the oil is all but burned out. A horse will gallop in a mechanical sort of way long after the power to jump has left him. A very limited experience with the symptoms suffices to teach us where such a stage has been reached ; also that a mere mechanical stride is of little use against a strong top binder. It by no means follows tliat the fjxculty of appreciatioii adds greatly to our enjoyment at such moments. I confess to its having a very contrary effect upon my frail nerves — and I venture to assert, by the way, that tlie one great drawback to the pleasures of steeplechase jockeyship lies in the frequent necessity of riding a beaten horse home. Now, however, there are gates and gaps to hel}) us. Again we are on the grass, and at the pace hounds are running tliey must surely catch a view in another minute or two. A shepherd — with more than the acumen or consideration of his race, holding his colley in his arms — declares "the fox is nobbut a hoondred ya-ards afore 'em!" the while he fumbles at an unwilling gate, and we pant and ejaculate, and hope there is no more jumping to be done. " Forrard, little bitches," rings cheerily out as the pack glides u]) the hedgeside, and we follow hurriedly to the AN AUTUMN GALLOP. 25 corner — trusting that, as liitlierto, providence, and en- lightened agricnlture M'ill liave provided free means of egress from field to field. Yes, there's a nice stile for the use of labourers and for people on foot — and well used it evidently is, for the approach to it is worn into a hole, and slimy cla}' has taken tlie place of grass. Beyond this, the corner is a veritable cul