FOX-HUNTING TYPES 235 



fan, the pack press forward, swarming like bees, and 

 driving furiously onward when they catch a stronger 

 breath of the " tainted gale." 



It is now that the Man who Rides to Hunt has 

 the advantage over the " thruster " pure and simple, 

 who begins to find the thing a bore if his horse is 

 still fresh, and would be glad to see a fresh fox jump 

 up in view of the pack— an event which would cause 

 much distress to the other pursuer, who, having 

 enjoyed the ride, is now delighting in the Hunt. 



I remember once seeing hounds leave a covert close 

 to the gate at which they were put in a few seconds 

 after having entered it. They scoured away, and ran 

 so fast and straight that in a few minutes I heard 

 a voice exclaim, " Gad, this must be a drag ! " " If I 

 thought it was," replied one of the best of sportsmen, 

 " I'd pull up on the spot ! " — and he meant it too. But 

 I fancy it would have made little difference to the 

 other, who was one of your go-along-there-are-three- 

 couple-of-hounds-on-the-scent style of gentleman. 



" Be with them I will," may be as much the motto 

 of the Man who Rides to Hunt as of the other. He 

 may not be a finished or beautiful horseman, but 

 must carry a heart bold and determined beneath his 

 waistcoat, and his eye must be quick. The chances 

 are that he is served by his sportsmanlike power of 

 observation, and his knowledge almost amounting to 

 instinct, of the way to get in and out of a field 

 so as to lose no ground. 



"There is," writes Whyte-Melville, "an intuitive 

 perception, more animal than human, of what we may 

 call ' the line of chase ' with which certain sportsmen 



