I've looked through 'Handley Cross' for any 'swimming' and found
only one more or less suitable place:
'The hounds work on, bristling into the thick of the cover. Now they
push through an almost impenetrable thicket, and cross a ride beyond.
The chorus increases, but the hounds move not. "Who-hoop! it's a
kill."
___Now Pigg jumps off his horse,___ and leaving him to chance, bounds over
head among the underwood. His cap-top is just visible as he scrambles
about in search of the place. "To the right!" exclaims Mr. Jorrocks,
seeing him blindly pushing the wrong way—"make for the big hash a top
of the crag and you'll have 'em."
___On Pigg goes, swimming, as it were, through the lofty gorse and
brushwood,___ and his well-known who-hoop! sounds from the bottom of the
crag.'
So it seems to me that the version of wading a brook is not completely
obvious.
And one more indirect evidence:
http://www.rare-posters.com/p91.html
Title: Hunting, from "An Almanac of Twelve Sports"
Artist: William Nicholson
Date: 1898
Hope this is useful.
Yan
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