Uncommon glad I was to see them; for ten minutes
more, at the pace they had been going, would have shaken off every man
Jack of us. As it was, it was bellows to mend; and Calcott's roarer roared
as surely roarer never roared before. You could hear him half a mile off.
We had barely time, however, to turn our horses to the wind, and ease them
for a few moments, before the pace began to mend, and from a catching to a
holding scent they again poured across Wallingburn pastures, and away to
Roughacres Court. It was between these places that I got my head duntled
into my hat,' continued his lordship, knocking the crownless hat against
his mud-stained knee. 'However, I didn't care a button, though I'd not worn
it above two years, and it might have lasted me a long time about home; but
misfortunes seldom come singly, and I was soon to have another. The few of
us that were left were all for the lanes, and very accommodating the one
between Newton Bushell and the Forty-foot Bank was, the hounds running
parallel within a hundred yards on the left for nearly a mile. When,
however, we got to the old water-mill in the fields below, the fox made a
bend to the left, as if changing his mind, and making for Newtonbroome
Woods, and we were obliged to try the fortunes of war in the fields. The
first fence we came to looked like nothing, and there was a weak place
right in my line that I rode at, expecting the horse would easily bore
through a few twigs that crossed the upper part of it. These, however,
happened to be twisted, to stop the gap, and not having put on enough
steam, they checked him as he rose, and brought him right down on his head
in the broad ditch, on the far side. Old Blossomnose, who was following
close behind, not making any allowance for falls, was in the air before I
was well down, and his horse came with a forefoot, into my pocket, and tore
the lap clean off by the skirt'; his lordship exhibiting the lap as he
spoke.

'It's your new coat, too,' observed Jack, examining it with concern as he
spoke.

''Deed, is it!' replied his lordship, with a shake of the head. ''Deed, is
it! That's the consequence of having gone out to breakfast. If it had been
to-morrow, for instance, I should have had number two on, or maybe number
three,' his lordship having coats of every shade and grade, from stainless
scarlet down to tattered mulberry colour.

'It'll mend, however,' observed his lordship, taking it back from Jack;
'it'll men