Do you ken8 John Peel with his coat so gay;
Do you ken John Peel at the break of day;
Do you ken John Peel when he's far, far away
With his hounds and his horn in the morning.
Such as the Braeside Harriers were, Lord Hampstead determined9 to make the experiment, and on a certain morning had himself driven to Cronelloe Thorn, a favourite meet halfway10 between Penrith and Keswick.
I hold that nothing is so likely to be permanently11 prejudicial to the interest of hunting in the British Isles12 as a certain flavour of tip-top fashion which has gradually enveloped13 it. There is a pretence14 of grandeur15 about that and, alas16, about other sports also, which is, to my thinking, destructive of all sport itself. Men will not shoot unless game is made to appear before them in clouds. They will not fish unless the rivers be exquisite17. To row is nothing unless you can be known as a national hero. Cricket requires appendages18 which are troublesome and costly19, and by which the minds of economical fathers are astounded20. To play a game of hockey in accordance with the times you must have a specially21 trained pony and a gaudy22 dress. Racquets have given place to tennis because tennis is costly. In all these cases the fashion of the game is much more cherished than the game itself. But in nothing is this feeling so predominant as in hunting. For the management of a pack, as packs are managed now, a huntsman needs must be a great man himself, and three mounted subordinates are necessary, as at any rate for two of these servants a second horse is required. A hunt is nothing in the world unless it goes out four times a week at least. A run is nothing unless the pace be that of a steeplechase. Whether there be or be not a fox before the hounds is of little consequence to the great body of riders. A bold huntsman who can make a dash across country from one covert23 to another, and who can so train his hounds that they shall run as though game were before them, is supposed to have provided good sport. If a fox can be killed in covert afterwards so much the better for those who like to talk of their doings. Though the hounds brought no fox with them, it is of no matter. When a fox does run according to his nature he is reviled24 as a useless brute25, because he will not go straight across country. But the worst of all is the attention given by men to things altogether outside the sport. Their coats and waistcoats, their boots and breeches, their little strings26 and pretty scarfs, their saddles and bridles27, their dandy knick-knacks, and, above all, their flasks28, are more to many men than aught else in the day's proceedings29. I have known girls who have thought that their first appearance in the ball-room, when all was fresh, unstained, and perfect from the milliner's hand, was the one moment of rapture30 for the evening. I have sometimes felt the same of young sportsmen at a Leicestershire or Northamptonshire meet. It is not that they will not ride when the occasion comes. They are always ready enough to break their bones. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that dandyism is antagonistic31 to pluck. The fault is that men train themselves to care for nothing that is not as costly as unlimited32 expenditure33 can make it. Thus it comes about that the real love of sport is crushed under a desire for fashion. A man will be almost ashamed to confess that he hunts in Essex or Sussex, because the proper thing is to go down to the Shires. Grass, no doubt, is better than ploughed land to ride upon; but, taking together the virtues34 and vices35 of all hunting counties, I doubt whether better sport is not to be found in what I will venture to call the haunts of the clodpoles, than among the palmy pastures of the well-breeched beauties of Leicestershire.
Braeside Harriers though they were, a strong taste for foxes had lately grown up in the minds of men and in the noses of hounds. Blank days they did not know, because a hare would serve the turn if the nobler animal were not forthcoming; but ideas of preserving had sprung up; steps were taken to solace36 the minds of old women who had lost their geese; and the Braeside Harriers, though they had kept their name, were gradually losing their character. On this occasion the hounds were taken off to draw a covert instead of going to a so-ho, as regularly as though they were advertised among the fox-hounds in The Times. It was soon known that Lord Hampstead was Lord Hampstead, and he was welcomed by the field. What matter that he was a revolutionary Radical37 if he could ride to hounds? At any rate, he was the son of a Marquis, and was not left to that solitude38 which sometimes falls upon a man who appears suddenly as a stranger among strangers on a hunting morning. "I am glad to see you out, my lord," said Mr. Amblethwaite, the Master. "It isn't often that we get recruits from Castle Hautboy."
"They think a good deal of shooting there."
"Yes; and they keep their horses in Northamptonshire. Lord Hautboy does his hunting there. The Earl, I think, never comes out now."
"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. Dick never lost sight of the hounds the whole day." Dick 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 bustled39 away to assist 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 trotted41 off down a little lane between two loose-built walls, so narrow that there was no space for two men to ride abreast42. 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 cultivation43 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 brook4 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 horsemen could gallop44 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 horsemen 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 killing45 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 galloped46 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 wont47 to drive about the country, but one well known in the annals of the Braeside Harriers. It was asserted 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 galloping48, but with a shambling, half cantering trot40, 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 Cumberland."
"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 quenched49 for the moment by the charm of the music, "it is a wonderful spot for echoes."
"It's what I call awfully50 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 poetic51 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 swell52 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 sex."
This was unbearable53. Though the fox had again turned and gone up the valley,—a movement which seemed to threaten his instant death, and to preclude54 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 assist Mr. Amblethwaite in his almost frantic55 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 blessing56 which Providence57 had vouchsafed58 to him.
"He'll never leave that place alive, my lord."
"I dare say not." And again the persecuted59 nobleman 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 thoroughly60 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 allude61 to his sister in connection with such a man was a profanation62. He could only escape from the brute. Was this a punishment which he was doomed63 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 clustering 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 hollies64 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 artistically65, gave him to the hungry hounds. Then it was that perhaps half-a-dozen diligent66, 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 tormentor67.
"Yes, indeed. A very good thing, as I was saying, Mr. Amblethwaite."
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收听单词发音
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1
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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2
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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3
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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15
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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appendages
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| n.附属物( appendage的名词复数 )；依附的人；附属器官；附属肢体（如臂、腿、尾等） | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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reviled
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| v.辱骂，痛斥( revile的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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bridles
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| 约束( bridle的名词复数 )； 限动器； 马笼头； 系带 | |
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flasks
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| n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 ) | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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antagonistic
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| adj.敌对的 | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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39
bustled
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| 闹哄哄地忙乱，奔忙( bustle的过去式和过去分词 )； 催促 | |
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40
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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41
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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42
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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43
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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44
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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45
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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46
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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47
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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48
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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49
quenched
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| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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50
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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51
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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52
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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53
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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54
preclude
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| vt.阻止，排除，防止；妨碍 | |
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55
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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56
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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57
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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59
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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60
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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61
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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62
profanation
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| n.亵渎 | |
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63
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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64
hollies
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| n.冬青（常绿灌木，叶尖而硬，有光泽，冬季结红色浆果）( holly的名词复数 )；（用作圣诞节饰物的）冬青树枝 | |
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65
artistically
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| adv.艺术性地 | |
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66
diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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67
tormentor
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| n. 使苦痛之人, 使苦恼之物, 侧幕 =tormenter | |
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