ing order of the day. Medical
men were evident, in correct white ties, on neat ponies and superior
cobs; military in mufti, on pulling steeplechasers; some farmers in
leggings on good young nags for sale, and good old ones for use. London
lawyers in heather mixture shooting-suits and Park hacks; lots of little
boys and girls on ponies--white or cream-coloured being the favourites;
at least one master of far distant fox-hounds pack, on a blood-colt,
master and horse alike new to the country and to the sport.
Riding-masters, with their lady pupils tittupping about on the live
rocking-horses that form the essential stock of every riding-master's
establishment, with one or two papas of the pupils--"worthy" aldermen,
or authorities of the Stock Exchange, expensively mounted, gravely
looking on, with an expression of doubt as to whether they ought to have
been there or not; and then a crowd of the nondescripts, bankers and
brewers trying to look like squires, neat and grim, among the well and
ill dressed, well and ill mounted, who form the staple of every
watering-place,--with this satisfactory feature pervading the whole
gathering, that with the exception of a few whose first appearance it
was in saddle on any turf, and the before-mentioned grim brewers, all
seemed decidedly jolly and determined to enjoy themselves.

The hounds drew up; to criticise them elaborately would be as unfair,
under the circumstances, as to criticise a pot-luck dinner of beans and
bacon put before a hungry man. They are not particularly
handsome--white patches being the prevailing colour; and they certainly
do not keep very close; but they are fast enough, persevering, and,
killing a fair share of hares, show very good sport to both lookers-on
and hard riders. The huntsman Willard, who has no "whip" to help him,
and often more assistance than he requires, is a heavy man, but
contrives, in spite of his weight, to get his hounds in the fastest
runs.

The country, it may be as well to say for the benefit of the thousands
who have never been on these famous mutton-producing "South Downs," is
composed of a series of table-lands divided by basin-like valleys, for
the most part covered with short turf, with large patches of gorse and
heather, in which the hares, when beaten, take refuge. Of late years,
high prices and Brighton demand, with the new system of artificial
agriculture, have pushed root crops and corn crops into sheltered
valleys and far over