FOX-HUNTING 405 



hunting, and without this very superficial know- 

 ledge, I fail to see how such an individual can lay 

 claim to the title of sportsman, when he is altogether 

 ignorant of the first rudiments of the sport in which 

 he participates. Yet how many there are in every 

 field to whom the actual working of the pack is 

 but as a sealed book ! They can frequently ride 

 well, and, as it is termed, * go well,' when hounds 

 are running ; but there are, alas ! too frequently 

 those who, by reason of their ignorance, sadly 

 trouble the Master by pressing and mobbing the 

 hounds, and the commission of other enormities 

 of a like nature. ' Gone away !' rings out cheerily 

 from the top corner of the covert, and they are 

 happy enough so long as the pace is good and 

 lasting ; and who can blame them for being so ? 

 Not I, certainly ; for what greater happiness can 

 mortal man experience than when, well-mounted, 

 he sits down and rides across the green pastures 

 of an English shire ? 



After all, the madding crowd is soon thinned, 

 and it is not for those who only hunt to ride 

 to see the end of a severe run. One may take it 

 for gran ted that those who have gone the straightest, 

 and lasted to the end, have kept careful watch on 

 the hounds throughout the line. Let the novice 

 remember these golden rules : To ride wide of 

 hounds ; to take his own line, and stick to it ; as 

 soon as he lands in one field, to instantly deter- 

 mine the place where he intends to get out of it ; 

 to save his horse in every way he can with due 



