"I dare say not. He has all the foreign nations to look after."
"I suppose he has his hands pretty full," said Mr. Amblethwaite. "I know I have mine just at this time of the year. Where do you think these hounds ran their fox to last Friday? We found him outside of the Lowther Woods, near the village of Clifton. They took him straight over Shap Fell, and then turning sharp to the right, went all along Hawes Wall and over High Street into Troutbeck."
"That"s all among the mountains," said Hampstead.
"Mountains! I should think so. I have to spend half my time among the mountains."
"But you couldn"t ride over High Street?"
"No, we couldn"t ride; not there. But we had to make our way round, some of us, and some of them went on foot. d.i.c.k never lost sight of the hounds the whole day." d.i.c.k was the boy who rode the ragged pony.
"When we found "em there he was with half the hounds around him, and the fox"s brush stuck in his cap."
"How did you get home that night?" asked Hampstead.
"Home! I didn"t get home at all. It was pitch dark before we got the rest of the hounds together. Some of them we didn"t find till next day. I had to go and sleep at Bowness, and thought myself very lucky to get a bed. Then I had to ride home next day over Kirkstone Fell.
That"s what I call something like work for a man and horse.--There"s a fox in there, my lord, do you hear them?" Then Mr. Amblethwaite bustled away to a.s.sist at the duty of getting the fox to break.
"I"m glad to see that you"re fond of this kind of thing, my lord,"
said a voice in Hampstead"s ear, which, though he had only heard it once, he well remembered. It was Crocker, the guest at the dinner-party,--Crocker, the Post Office clerk.
"Yes," said Lord Hampstead, "I am very fond of this kind of thing.
That fox has broken, I think, at the other side of the cover." Then he trotted off down a little lane between two loose-built walls, so narrow that there was no s.p.a.ce for two men to ride abreast. His object at that moment was to escape Crocker rather than to look after the hounds.
They were in a wild country, not exactly on a mountain side, but among hills which not far off grew into mountains, where cultivation of the rudest kind was just beginning to effect its domination over human nature. There was a long spinney rather than a wood stretching down a bottom, through which a brook ran. It would now cease, and then renew itself, so that the trees, though not absolutely continuous, were nearly so for the distance of half a mile. The ground on each side was rough with big stones, and steep in some places as they went down the hill. But still it was such that hors.e.m.e.n could gallop on it. The fox made his way along the whole length, and then traversing, so as to avoid the hounds, ran a ring up the hillside, and back into the spinney again. Among the hors.e.m.e.n many declared that the brute must be killed unless he would make up his mind for a fair start. Mr. Amblethwaite was very busy, hunting the hounds himself, and intent rather on killing the fox fairly than on the hopes of a run. Perhaps he was not desirous of sleeping out another night on the far side of Helvellyn. In this way the sportsmen galloped up and down the side of the wood till the feeling arose, as it does on such occasions, that it might be well for a man to stand still awhile and spare his horse, in regard to the future necessities of the day. Lord Hampstead did as others were doing, and in a moment Crocker was by his side. Crocker was riding an animal which his father was wont to drive about the country, but one well known in the annals of the Braeside Harriers. It was a.s.serted of him that the fence was not made which he did not know how to creep over. Of jumping, such as jumping is supposed to be in the shires, he knew nothing. He was, too, a bad hand at galloping, but with a shambling, half cantering trot, which he had invented for himself, he could go along all day, not very quickly, but in such fashion as never to be left altogether behind. He was a flea-bitten horse, if my readers know what that is,--a flea-bitten roan, or white covered with small red spots. Horses of this colour are ugly to look at, but are very seldom bad animals. Such as he was, Crocker, who did not ride much when up in London, was very proud of him. Crocker was dressed in a green coat, which in a moment of extravagance he had had made for hunting, and in brown breeches, in which he delighted to display himself on all possible occasions. "My lord," he said, "you"d hardly think it, but I believe this horse to be the best hunter in c.u.mberland."
"Is he, indeed? Some horse of course must be the best, and why not yours?"
"There"s nothing he can"t do;--nothing. His jumping is mi--raculous, and as for pace, you"d be quite surprised.--They"re at him again now.
What an echo they do make among the hills!"
Indeed they did. Every now and then the Master would just touch his horn, giving a short blast, just half a note, and then the sound would come back, first from this rock and then from the other, and the hounds as they heard it would open as though encouraged by the music of the hills, and then their voices would be carried round the valley, and come back again and again from the steep places, and they would become louder and louder as though delighted with the effect of their own efforts. Though there should be no hunting, the concert was enough to repay a man for his trouble in coming there. "Yes,"
said Lord Hampstead, his disgust at the man having been quenched for the moment by the charm of the music, "it is a wonderful spot for echoes."
"It"s what I call awfully nice. We don"t have anything like that up at St. Martin"s-le-Grand." Perhaps it may be necessary to explain that the Post Office in London stands in a spot bearing that poetic name.
"I don"t remember any echoes there," said Lord Hampstead.
"No, indeed;--nor yet no hunting, nor yet no hounds; are there, my lord? All the same, it"s not a bad sort of place!"
"A very respectable public establishment!" said Lord Hampstead.
"Just so, my lord; that"s just what I always say. It ain"t swell like Downing Street, but it"s a deal more respectable than the Custom House."
"Is it? I didn"t know."
"Oh yes. They all admit that. You ask Roden else." On hearing the name, Lord Hampstead began to move his horse, but Crocker was at his side and could not be shaken off. "Have you heard from him, my lord, since you have been down in these parts?"
"Not a word."
"I dare say he thinks more of writing to a correspondent of the fairer s.e.x."
This was unbearable. Though the fox had again turned and gone up the valley,--a movement which seemed to threaten his instant death, and to preclude any hope of a run from that spot,--Hampstead felt himself compelled to escape, if he could. In his anger he touched his horse with his spur and galloped away among the rocks, as though his object was to a.s.sist Mr. Amblethwaite in his almost frantic efforts. But Crocker cared nothing for the stones. Where the lord went, he went.
Having made acquaintance with a lord, he was not going to waste the blessing which Providence had vouchsafed to him.
"He"ll never leave that place alive, my lord."
"I dare say not." And again the persecuted n.o.bleman rode on,--thinking that neither should Crocker, if he could have his will.
"By the way, as we are talking of Roden--"
"I haven"t been talking about him at all." Crocker caught the tone of anger, and stared at his companion. "I"d rather not talk about him."
"My lord! I hope there has been nothing like a quarrel. For the lady"s sake, I hope there"s no misunderstanding!"
"Mr. Crocker," he said very slowly, "it isn"t customary--"
At that moment the fox broke, the hounds were away, and Mr.
Amblethwaite was seen rushing down the hill-side, as though determined on breaking his neck. Lord Hampstead rushed after him at a pace which, for a time, defied Mr. Crocker. He became thoroughly ashamed of himself in even attempting to make the man understand that he was sinning against good taste. He could not do so without some implied mention of his sister, and to allude to his sister in connection with such a man was a profanation. He could only escape from the brute. Was this a punishment which he was doomed to bear for being--as his stepmother was wont to say--untrue to his order?
In the mean time the hounds went at a great pace down the hill. Some of the old stagers, who knew the country well, made a wide sweep round to the left, whence by lanes and tracks, which were known to them, they could make their way down to the road which leads along Ulleswater to Patterdale. In doing this they might probably not see the hounds again that day,--but such are the charms of hunting in a hilly country. They rode miles around, and though they did again see the hounds, they did not see the hunt. To have seen the hounds as they start, and to see them again as they are cl.u.s.tering round the huntsman after eating their fox, is a great deal to some men.
On this occasion it was Hampstead"s lot--and Crocker"s--to do much more than that. Though they had started down a steep valley,--down the side rather of a gully,--they were not making their way out from among the hills into the low country. The fox soon went up again,--not back, but over an intervening spur of a mountain towards the lake. The riding seemed sometimes to Hampstead to be impossible.
But Mr. Amblethwaite did it, and he stuck to Mr. Amblethwaite. It would have been all very well had not Crocker stuck to him. If the old roan would only tumble among the stones what an escape there would be! But the old roan was true to his character, and, to give every one his due, the Post Office clerk rode as well as the lord.
There was nearly an hour and a-half of it before the hounds ran into their fox just as he was gaining an earth among the bushes and hollies with which Airey Force is surrounded. Then on the sloping meadow just above the waterfall, the John Peel of the hunt dragged out the fox from among the trees, and, having dismembered him artistically, gave him to the hungry hounds. Then it was that perhaps half-a-dozen diligent, but cautious, huntsmen came up, and heard all those details of the race which they were afterwards able to give, as on their own authority, to others who had been as cautious, but not so diligent, as themselves.
"One of the best things I ever saw in this country," said Crocker, who had never seen a hound in any other country. At this moment he had ridden up alongside of Hampstead on the way back to Penrith. The Master and the hounds and Crocker must go all the way. Hampstead would turn off at Pooley Bridge. But still there were four miles, during which he would be subjected to his tormentor.
"Yes, indeed. A very good thing, as I was saying, Mr. Amblethwaite."
CHAPTER XIV.
COMING HOME FROM HUNTING.
Lord Hampstead had been discussing with Mr. Amblethwaite the difficult nature of hunting in such a county as c.u.mberland. The hounds were in the road before them with John Peel in the midst of them. d.i.c.k with the ragged pony was behind, looking after stragglers.
Together with Lord Hampstead and the Master was a hard-riding, rough, weather-beaten half-gentleman, half-farmer, named Patterson, who lived a few miles beyond Penrith and was Amblethwaite"s right hand in regard to hunting. Just as Crocker joined them the road had become narrow, and the young lord had fallen a little behind. Crocker had seized his opportunity;--but the lord also seized his, and thrust himself in between Mr. Patterson and the Master. "That"s all true,"
said the Master. "Of course we don"t presume to do the thing as you swells do it down in the Shires. We haven"t the money, and we haven"t the country, and we haven"t the foxes. But I don"t know whether for hunting we don"t see as much of it as you do."
"Quite as much, if I may take to-day as a sample."
"Very ordinary;--wasn"t it, Amblethwaite?" asked Patterson, who was quite determined to make the most of his own good things.
"It was not bad to-day. The hounds never left their scent after they found him. I think our hillsides carry the scent better than our gra.s.ses. If you want to ride, of course, it"s rough. But if you like hunting, and don"t mind a scramble, perhaps you may see it here as well as elsewhere."
"Better, a deal, from all I hear tell," said Patterson. "Did you ever hear any music like that in Leicestershire, my lord?"