about noon
My mother at first made some opposition , but my father laughed , and I coaxed , intreated , and teazed , till she complied ; for this was by no means the first scene of the kind . I went to bed with an overjoyed heart , and a head so full of the morrow that I was up dressed and ready the first in the house . The horses were brought out , my father and I mounted , we soon came up with the sportsmen , and away we went in quest of a fox . We were at first unlucky , and it was late in the day before Reynard was found ; but about noon the hounds opened , he started in view , and the sport began . The chace happened to be long , heavy , and continued for many miles . My father was an eager sportsman . He valued himself both upon his hunter and his horsemanship ; and who should be first in at the death was an honour that he would contend with the keenest sportsman in the kingdom , though it were the Squire himself .