Excerpt from The Shadow of Ashlydyat
It was a bright day in autumn: the scene one of those fair ones rarely witnessed but in England. The sun, warm and glowing, almost befitting a summer's day, shone on the stubble of the corn-fields, whence the golden grain had recently been gathered; gilded the tops of the trees - so soon to pass into the "sere and yellow leaf;" illumined the blue hills in the distance, and brought out the nearer features of the landscape in all their light and shade. A fine landscape, comprising hill and dale, water and green pastures, woods and open plains. Amidst them rose the marks of busy life; mansions, cottages, hamlets, railways, and churches, whose steeples ascended high, pointing the way to a better Land.
The town of Prior's Ash, lying in a valley, was alive that gay morning with excitement. It was the day appointed for the first meet of the hounds, the P. A. hounds, of some importance in the county, and people from far and near were flocking to see them throw off. Old and young, gentle and simple, lords of the soil and tradesmen, all were wending their way to the place of meeting. The master, Colonel Max, was wont on this, the inaugurating morning of the season, to assemble at his house for breakfast as many as his largo dining-room could by any species of crowding contain; and a fine sight it was, drawing forth its numerous spectators to watch them come in procession, to the meet. As many carriages-and-four, with their fair occupants, would come to that first meet, as you could have seen in the old days on a country race-course. This show was an old-fashioned local custom; Colonel Max was pleased to keep it up, and he lacked not supporters. The opening this year was unusually early.
The gay crowd was arriving, some from the breakfast, some from their homes. The rendezvous was a wide, open common with no space lacking. The restrained hounds snarled away at a short distance, and their attendants, attired for the hunt, clashed their whips among them.
Riding a noble horse, and advancing from the opposite direction to that of Colonel Max and his guests, came a tall, stately man, getting in years.
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