The huntsman, Alfred, rode The Mail, A bright bay mount, his best of prancers, Out of Forget-me-not by Answers. A thick-set man was Alf, and hard; He chewed a straw from the stable-yard; He owned a chestnut, The Dispatch, With one white sock and one white patch; And had bred a mare called Comic Cuts; He was a man with fearful guts. So too was Rother, the first whip, Nothing could give this man the pip; He rode The Mirror, a raking horse, A piebald full of points and force. All that was best in English life, All that appealed to man or wife, Sweet peas or standard bread or sales These two men loved. They hated Wales. * * * * * The fox burst out with a flair of cunning, He ran like mad and he went on running; He made his point for the Heroes' Pleasance, By Hang Bill Copse, where he roused the pheasants. They rose with a whirr and kuk, kuk, kukkered; The fox ran on with a mask unpuckered By Boshale Stump and Uttermost Penny, Where the grass was short and the tracks were many. He tried the clay and he tried the marl, A workman's whippet began to snarl; Into the Dodder a splash he went; All that he cared was to change the scent, And half of the pack from the line he shook By paddling about in the Beaver Brook. * * * * * He swerved to the left at Maynard Keynes, With an eye to sheep and an eye to drains; By Old Cole Smiley and Clere St. Thomas, Without any stops and without any commas; At Addison's Cots he went so quick, He startled a bricklayer laying a brick; He ran over oats and he ran over barleys, By Moss Cow Puddle and Rushen Parleys; By Lympne Sassoon and Limpet Farm He scattered the geese in wild alarm; He ran with a pain growing under his pinny Till he heard the sound of a war-horse whinny, And tried for an earth in the Tory Holts. * * * * * The earth was stopped. It was barred with bolts. * * * * * He turned again and he passed Spen Valley, By Paisley Shawls and Leamington Raleigh; His flanks were wet, he was mire-beslobbered By Hatfield Yew and by Hatfield Robert; He tried a hen-coop, he tried a tub, He tried the National Liberal Club-- A terrier barked and turned him out. * * * * * He tried the end of an old drain-spout. * * * * *