Glomax got into it,--as he always does into brooks, and
young Runce hurt his horse's shoulder at the opposite bank. Lord
Rufford's horse balked it, to the Lord's disgust; but took it
afterwards, not losing very much ground. Tony went in and out, the
crafty old dog knowing the one bit of hard ground. Then they
crossed Purbeck field, as it is still called--which twenty years
since was a wide waste of land, but is now divided by new fences,
very grievous to half-blown horses. Sir John Purefoy got a nasty
fall over some stiff timber, and here many a half-hearted rider
turned to the right into the lane. Hampton and his Lordship, and
Battersby, with Fred Botsey and Larry, took it all as it came, but
through it all not one of them could give Larry a lead. Then there
was manoeuvring into a wood and out of it again, and that saddest
of all sights to the riding man, a cloud of horsemen on the road as
well placed as though they had ridden the line throughout. In
getting out of the road Hampton's horse slipped up with him, and,
though he saw it all, he was never able again to compete for a
place. The fox went through the Hampton Wick coverts without
hanging a moment, just throwing the hounds for two minutes off
their scent at the gravel pits. The check was very useful to Tony,
who had got his second horse and came up sputtering, begging the
field for G--'s sake to be,--in short to be anywhere but where they
were.
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