FOX-HUNTING AND WARFARE 309 



won the admiration of our enemies, the French, by 

 the way in which they rode across difficult country, 

 so that they came in view of the enemy from 

 unexpected directions ; and having got all the in- 

 formation they wanted they rode away again over 

 fences and bad ground, where the French cavalry 

 were unable to follow them. Our officers of those 

 days had picked up their excellence in riding across 

 country when hunting in England." At the end 

 of the century history repeats itself, though in the 

 modern hunting-field there is not so much necessity 

 for scouting and tracking as there was a hundred 

 years ago, when a run lasting three hours was not 

 an uncommon occurrence, and at the finish the 

 belated fox-hunter would often find himself in a 

 strange country with no guide to tell him his nearest 

 way home. He was thus obliged to study the 

 country during the run, and to form a map of it 

 in his mind's eye. But now, when forty minutes is 

 considered a good thing and fields are so large that 

 there is always somebody to put one in the right 

 direction for home, I am afraid that {q\v men take 

 the trouble to study the country. How often does 

 one hear a really good man to hounds say, " I've 

 no eye for a country," when the cause is that he 

 has never taken the trouble to train his eye? On 

 the other hand, ride from home to covert-side with 

 a man who has a good eye. He will never look 

 you in the face, but is gazing around him the whole 

 time that he is talking, fixing landmarks in his mind 



