Show rox fox HUNTING IN ENGLAND CONCLUDED my second day was near stratford on avon on ay von the misguided english E call it the meet was to be at Goldi cote house one odthe fixtures of the warwick shire hunt there were about a hundred persons including a few ladies and one little bareheaded bluecoat blue coat school thack brays school who with his folded umbrella long skirts low shoes and yellow hos ewas ewaa in for as much sport as his christmas holiday would give him As a further penalty for want of forethought I 1 was reduced to riding a friends coach horse however the reduction was not great for whether by early instruction in st oi or inheritance he lie was more than half a hunter aud and gave ma me a capital look at the whole days day a chase while his owner on a most charming charmin I 1 black blood mare be being 1 1139 ling out or of condition for hard riding kindly applied hirn hiru himself seif self to urging me to severer work than one likes to do with a borrowed horse lie he introduced me to a venerable old oia gell geli gentleman tieman in a time and weather stained red coat velvet cap and well used nether gear mounted on a knowing looking old oid gray I 1 and attended by his granddaughter he could not have been less than eighty years old and his days of hard fidius were over but constant hunting exercise exercise every winter for over sixty years had protected him wonderfully well against the ravages ggs of time and it is rare to see an american of sixty so hale and hearty and so BO cheerful and jolly I 1 was told that if I 1 would take him for my leader I 1 would see more of the run than I 1 could in any other vay with such a I 1 had he seemed to know the habits of the foxes of south donth warwickshire Warwick shire as thoroughly as lie did every footpath and gathof gate bof the tho country and he be awl M us by cross cuts to the various mits alts to which reynard circled abbat nihat we often had the whole nield field in sight it was not an especially ally interesting day and the fox got away at last among atan a tangle of railway rail rall wiy way lines that blocked our passage my old mentor who had given me much valuable in instruction st in the details of hunting was vastly disgusted at the result and broke ou out with all ail ali ah its all up with old england I 1 doubt these confounded railways have killed sport spart theres no hunting to be had any iong long longer or for their infernal cutting tip up the country in this way P ave ve hunted with these hounds under fifteen different masters but ive lve about done and I 1 shant lose much its its all up however I 1 suppose we could never pa pay y the interest on the national debt without the railways but its all up with hunting at that lie he called away the young lady bade me a melancholy good by and rode half sadly home I 1 galloped galloped back to stratford with my handsome old host a little more knowing in inthe the tho ways of the field but without yet having having had a fair taste of the sport seven miles from peterborough Peter borough in the dismal little village of ford near the borders of bonshire ton shire and Huntingdon shire Is i perhaps ner haps the only remaining old oid posting inn in E england thatis that is kept up in in the unchanged stylo style of the ante railroad days the post houses are gone but the tho posting stables are filled with hunters t the he tavell veiling travelling tra ing public have fled to the swifter lines and wansford bansford ford is forever deserted of them but the old haycock keeps up its old cheer and tom percival pereival who boasts that lie he has had the princess victoria for a guest and has slept five dukes in one night has little occasion to complain of neglect the good wine that needs no ash bush still makes his cellar known I 1 and no one should criticise criticism critic ise english cooking until lie he has dined once at the haycock nowhere is the inn maid of whom we have havo read so much to be found in such simple tidy and courtesy in ing perfection and nowhere in short can one find so completely the solid comfort or of hostelry ilfe lire half old farmhouse farm house and half wayside inn with a marvellous marcellous marv ellous larder through whose glass closed side the guest sees visions of joints and jams and pastry in lavish profusion backed by a stable yard where boys are always exercising good horses and flanked by a of quaint clipped yews bews the old house at wansford bansford ford in spite of its dull look in ing lug road front is worth a visit from enose those who would get out of the sight and sound of steam and see the old old country life of england the visitor is not numbered and billeted billete dand and pigeonholed pigeon holed as in the modern hotel but the old fiction of host and guest is ia well kept up your coming should be announced in advance and you are received as in some sort a member of the family whose ways are made to conform more or less to tilo twe wishes PS of yourself and your e connives con vives mainly young swells from london who are few and who are there as you are not for business but for rest good living and regular sport three packs of hounds aie within reach and on the days when none of the meets is near there is always the larking the fhe training of young horses to supply a good substitute sti tute as far as the riding goes one who cares eares for hunting pure and simple rather than for themay the gayer life of leamington leavington Lea and C cheltenham cannot do better than to make the season or a part of it at the haycock with regularly engaged horses for as many days in in tj tile 1 week as he may choose to ride it costs but it pays one is none the less welcome among the guests for bein being an american I 1 ure ere t there had a day with the george fitz william hounds not being asyet as yet quite at homo home in lil the fie nield field ld I 1 took a wise old horse cock robin bobin robin n who was gellup well weli up to my weight an and 1 who as Perci perel percival vai told me would teach me more than I 1 could teach him Hew rew he was assent sent on early with the other hunters and I 1 t took ook a hack hack haek to ride to cover we were a party off and we went through the fields and the lawns and the rain raily to where the meet was fixed for eleven at barnwell castle a fine old norman ruin square and fund low with four large corner towers draped in magnificent ivy it was a dreary morning and not more than sixty were out but among these as always there were ladies and there was more than the usual proportion of fine horses hormes our cover was drawn blank and we moved to another where a fox was found and whence the run was sharp and too straight for a prudent novice to see very much of I 1 it and it was some minutes before cock robin and his rider came up with the hounds who had come to a achee achec kina in a large wood throughout the day there wasa was a good deal of waiting about different covers between which the tho fox ran back and forth finally he lie broke away for tor a long iong quick burst over the fields which lay to the left of a farm road down which we wd were riding and which was flanked by a high and solid looking hedge bedge near the head bead of the party was a well mounted blond of seventeen who had hitherto seemed to avoid the open country and to keep prudently near to her mother and her groom grown the sight of the splendid run fast leaving us behind was too much for her and slie she turned straight for the hedge clearing it with a grander leap th than an I 1 had seen taken that day and flying on over hedges and ditches in tho direct W wake akoob of the tile hounds A young german in 1 I n who followed her said mid as we rode back to the haycock it is vort to come from america or from to see zat kofely fely feiy lady indy go over ze country and it was im luck nuck ch often favors the timid cock robin and I 1 wei e quite alone he disgusted and I 1 hair half ashamed with my prudence when the fox who had found straight running of no avail came swerving to the right over the crest of the di distant I 1 stant mill hill closely fol foi followed loed by the hounds bounds and in splendid style by the first flight of the field soon he be crossed a brook which was fenced in with rails and the horsemen all had to make a long detour so that 1 I who had been last now became first I 1 had the fox and the hounds all to myself my lione hone was fresh and the way was easy my monopoly lasted only a moment but it was not a moment f tranquility finding an open gate and bridge I 1 followed the pack into a large low field surrounded on three sides by the wide brook the fox was turned by this and ran to the right along the bank at the tile corner of the tile field he be turned again to the right still keeping by the edge ot of the this gave the hounds an immense advantage and cutting off the angle they came camo so closely upon him that with still another turn of the brook ahead of him lie he had but one chance for his life and that was a desperate one for a tired fox to consider he llo did not consider but went slap at the b brook roo and cleared it with a leap of near nearly twenty feet the foremost hounds whimpered fora moment on tho the bank before they took to the water and when they were across reynard beynard was well out of sight and they had to nose out his trail afresh he brought them again to a check and finally after half an hours skirmishing he ran down a railway cutting in the wake of a train and got finally away incidentally here was an opportunity for an ari english gentleman to show more good temper and breeding than it is ones daily lot to see he was one of a bridge ful of horsemen watching the hounds as they vainly tried to unravel the foxs coxs scent from the tile bituminous trail of the locomotive when full of eager curiosity one of the ladles ladies middle aged and not native and to the manner born but not an american rodo redo dire directly etly on to his horses heels to the confusion of my lady the horse like a sensible horse as he was resented the attack with both his feet his rider got him at oneo once out of the way and then returned bowing liis his venerable head bead in regretful apology and trusting that no serious harm had been done how can you ride such a kicking brute was the gracious acknowledgment or of his forbearance in this storied little island one is never for long out of the presence of places on the traditions of which our lifelong fancies have been fed our road home honn 0 lay past the indistinct mass 0 of f rubbish clustered round with ivy and with the saddest associations association which was once pothen Pother ingay castle and ni we turned into the tile village my companions pointed hinted out the still serviceable vi iut but long unused stocks where the minor malefactors of the olden time expiated their of fences we reached the tile haycock at three a moist but far from froni unpleasant bedy body of tired and dirty men having ridden since e nine in the morning over fifty five miles mostly in the rain and often in m a shower of mud splashed by galloping hoofs by six we e were in good trim for dinner and after dinner for a long cosy talk over the events of the day and horses and fox hunting in general my own interest in the sport is confined mainly to its equestrian side and I 1 am not able to give much information as to its details any stranger 0 must be lapres impressed red qed with the firm hold it ic has on the affections of the people and with the little public sympathy that is shown for the rare attempts that are made to restrict its ri rights ats it would seem natural a I 1 that the farmers should be its bitter opponents it can hardly le tte a cheerful sight t in march for a thrifty man a crowd of mad horsemen tearing through his twenty acres of well weli wintered wheat filling the air air with a spray of soil and uprooted plants but let anon arlon riding reformer get up after the annual dl dinner n of the local agricultural association and suggest that the rights of tenant fai fal farmers have long iong enoich lain at the mercy of their landlord and his liis fox huntin hunting friends with the rabble rabbie of idla idle idie e sports and ruthless neer neler do who follow at their heels and that it is time for them to assert themselves and try to secure the prohibition or of a costly pastime which which whick leads to no good practical result and the burdens of which fall so heavily oil on the producing classes and then see how his hi brother fain v ill second his efforts the very man whose wheat was apparently ruin ed will tell him that in march one would have sald said the whole crop was destroyed but that the stirring ing up seemed to do it good for he be had never before seen such an even stand on that nield field Another wil largue that while hunti hunting does give him some extra work on the repair of hedges and gates and while lie he sometimes has his fields torn up moie than he likes yet the hounds tre irre the be best st neighbors he has they bring a good ma market arket for imy hay and oats and for his part he likes to get a day with them himself now and then another raises a young borso when wilen he be can and if he turn out a clever hunter he lie gets a much larger price for him than he could ir if there were no hunting in it the country another has cowand now and then lost poultry by the depredations of foxes but he be no never ver knew the master roaster to refuse a fair fail claim for damages for his part lie he would scorn to ask compensation ho he likes to see the noble sport I 1 which is the glory of england flourishing in spite of modern improvements prove ments at this point and at this stage of the convivial cheer they bring in the charge at balaklava and other evidences that the noble sport which is the glory of old england breeds a race of men whose invincible daring always has won and always shall win her honor in the field and long live the queen and heres heroes a health to the handley cross hunt and confusion to the mean and niggardly spirit that is filling the country with wire fence fences sand and that do away with the noble sport which is the tile glory of old england heal hear and so it ends and half balf the company in velvet caps scarlet coat coats I 1 leathers and top boots will be early on the ground at the first meet of tho the next autumn glad to see their old cover side friends once more and hoping for a jolly winter of such healthful amusements and pleasant intercourse as shall shail put into their heads and their hearts and into their hearty frames and ruddy faces a tenfold ten fold compensation for the trifling loss they may sustain in the way of broken gates and trampled fields I 1 saw too little to bo be able to form a fair opinion as to the harm done but when once the run commences commence no more account is made of what is carefully avoided when going ato at a slow pace that if it were so much sawdust fen fences cesare are torn dowland down dow nand and there is no time to replace them if gates are locked they nrc arc taken off the higges or broken if sheep join the crowd in an enclosure and follow them into the road no do one stops to see that they are returned we are after the hounds and sheep must take care of themselves I 1 saw one farmer in an excited manner open the gates of df his kitchen garden and turn the hounds and twenty horsemen through it as the shortest tway way to where he had bad seen the fox go hish his womenfolk eagerly calling rally tally lio ho to others who were going wrong I 1 have never seen a railroad train stopped because of the conductors interest IP in a passing hunt but I 1 falley faricy that is the only thing in E england that does not stop when the all absorb ing f interest is once awakened whatever may be the effect on material interests the benefit of this eager vigorous outdoor life on tho the |