<h2><SPAN name="page88"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>WITH THE CHIDDINGFOLDS</h2>
<p class="poetry"> The horse is bedded down<br/>
Where the straw lies deep.<br/>
The hound is in the kennel;<br/>
Let the poor hound sleep!<br/>
And the fox is in the spinney<br/>
By the run which he is
haunting,<br/>
And I’ll lay an even guinea<br/>
That a goose or two is wanting<br/>
When the farmer comes to count them in the morning.</p>
<p class="poetry"> The horse is up and
saddled;<br/>
Girth the old horse tight!<br/>
The hounds are out and drawing<br/>
In the morning light.<br/>
<SPAN name="page89"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
89</span>Now it’s ‘Yoick!’ among the
heather,<br/>
And it’s
‘Yoick!’ across the clover,<br/>
And it’s ‘To him, all
together!’<br/>
‘Hyke a Bertha! Hyke a
Rover!’<br/>
And the woodlands smell so sweetly in the morning.</p>
<p class="poetry"> ‘There’s
Termagant a-whimpering;<br/>
She whimpers so.’<br/>
‘There’s a young hound
yapping!’<br/>
Let the young hound go!<br/>
But the old hound is cunning,<br/>
And it’s him we mean to
follow,<br/>
‘They are running! They are running!<br/>
And it’s ‘Forrard to
the hollo!’<br/>
For the scent is lying strongly in the morning.</p>
<p class="poetry"> ‘Who’s the fool
that heads him?’<br/>
Hold hard, and let him pass!<br/>
<SPAN name="page90"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
90</span>He’s out among the oziers<br/>
He’s clear upon the
grass.<br/>
You grip his flanks and settle,<br/>
For the horse is stretched and
straining,<br/>
Here’s a game to test your mettle,<br/>
And a sport to try your
training,<br/>
When the Chiddingfolds are running in the morning.</p>
<p class="poetry"> We’re up by the
Coppice<br/>
And we’re down by the
Mill,<br/>
We’re out upon the Common,<br/>
And the hounds are running
still.<br/>
You must tighten on the leather,<br/>
For we blunder through the
bracken;<br/>
Though you’re over hocks in heather<br/>
Still the pace must never
slacken<br/>
As we race through Thursley Common in the morning.</p>
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