126 FOX HUNTING. 



enough to stay with them; and then you had suffi- 

 cient grit in yourself to stick to it. But quite all 

 this no fox hunter has ever been known to have 

 in a long, fast, hard run, kept up for hours; and 

 he must occasionally cut to keep in the hunt. 

 Then, another difficulty, the fox will not keep to 

 the open country, and you are soon confronted 

 with a tract of woodland filled with a thick growth 

 of underbrush, to ride through which faster than 

 a walk, — if you are not torn from the saddle, or do 

 not have your eyes, face, hands, and clothes torn, 

 and your hat or cap gone, you are lucky. Still 

 more, in approaching this thicket you find a mass 

 of green briars through which it is impossible to 

 force your horse to get to the fence separating 

 you from the wood; and as if this were not enough, 

 over the fence gracefully dangles innumerable 

 grape vines with hangman nooses ready to slip 

 over your neck and suspend you from the saddle. 

 If you have hunted the country before and know 

 a wood road through this labyrinth, you are likely 

 to ride to it; and if you do not know such a way 

 you will think discretion the better part of valor 

 and ride around the wood tract, seeking a better 

 riding course. In the meantime the fox and 

 hounds have gone through this barrier, in your 

 way, and you are fortunate if they have not turned 

 in an opposite direction from the one you take to 



