248 FOX-HUNTING TYPES 



non-appearance. It was a terrible moment for an 

 unfortunate blagueur, who always used to impress 

 upon us that some curious piece of ill-luck had alone 

 prevented him from seeing the finish of a run — it was 

 a terrible moment, I say, when, after explaining at 

 length how stirrup and leather were switched off at 

 a " horribly hairy place " when he was " close to 

 hounds," a well-known road-rider, in a voice that 

 could be heard half a mile away, said, " Here's your 

 stirrup-leather, that we saw you hang up on a gate- 

 post " ! The unhappy victim was unaware that he 

 was in the next field to the road when the accident 

 occurred. 



Of course, the crowning triumph of the road-rider, 

 the moment of supreme happiness, is when his sagacity 

 has enabled him to get to the scene of the finish, the 

 kill or the mark to ground, before any of the field 

 brigade have arrived ; and this he is usually able to 

 do once or twice in a season if he be a constant 

 attendant. For if hounds have been running for any 

 length of time, and he has kept in any sort of touch 

 with them, it will probably happen that a well-known 

 wood or other fox-covert lies at length directly in 

 front of them ; the road-rider then executes a bold 

 foward movement, and if he has a handy road 

 arrives at the covert in time to see hounds run into 

 it. It is also a moment to be proud of when he has 

 managed, by his knowledge of the country and un- 

 hesitating tactics, to place himself where he views 

 the fox, hounds, and horsemen cross a road. To do 

 this is the dearest ambition of the road-rider, and I 

 imagine he mentally scores a good many points in 



