a thick fence, and the door being opened, a lubberly-looking animal, as
big as a donkey, blobbed out, and began feeding very composedly. "That
won't do," said Jonathan Griffin, eyeing him--"ride on, Tom, and whip
him away." Off went the whip, followed by a score of sportsmen whose
shouts, aided by the cracking of their whips, would have frightened the
devil himself; and these worthies, knowing the hounds would catch them
up in due time, resolved themselves into a hunt for the present, and
pursued the animal themselves. Ten minutes having expired and the hounds
seeming likely to break away, Jonathan thought it advisable to let them
have their wicked will, and accordingly they rushed off in full cry
to the spot where the deer had been uncarted. Of course, there was no
trouble in casting for the scent; indeed they were very honest, and did
not pretend to any mystery; the hounds knew within an inch where it
would be, and the start was pretty much like that for a hunter's plate
in four-mile heats. A few dashing blades rode before the hounds
at starting, but otherwise the field was tolerably quiet, and was
considerably diminished after the three first leaps. The scent improved,
as did the pace, and presently they got into a lane along which they
rattled for five miles as hard as ever they could lay legs to the
ground, throwing the mud into each other's faces, until each man looked
as if he was roughcast. A Kentish wagon, drawn by six oxen, taking up
the whole of the lane, had obliged the dear animal to take to the fields
again, where, at the first fence, most of our high-mettled racers stood
still. In truth, it was rather a nasty place, a yawning ditch, with a
mud bank and a rotten landing. "Now, who's for it? Go it, Jorrocks,
you're a fox-hunter," said one, who, erecting himself in his stirrups,
was ogling the opposite side. "I don't like it," said Jorrocks; "is
never a gate near?" "Oh yes, at the bottom of the field," and away they
all tore for it. The hounds now had got out of sight, but were heard
running in cover at the bottom of the turnip-field into which they had