24 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



the fox killed, but who, if hounds were running across Hyde 

 Park, would, if alone, lose themselves in doubt as to through 

 which arch they should go at Hyde Park Corner. I know 

 steeplechase jockeys, men who have ridden in half a dozen 

 " Nationals," who could not stay with hounds half a dozen 

 fields if they ran fast and no pilot was handy. I never 

 knew a pudding-headed man who was a first-flighter. A good 

 man to hounds is quick-witted and observant, decisive and 

 self-reliant. 



Remember and it is a comforting thought withal 

 that a good horse, if fresh, can jump anything you dare 

 or should put him at. A tired horse is a dangerous 

 conveyance, of course, but you will soon know when he has 

 had enough. Three feet six of timber, strong creosoted rails, 

 absolutely unbreakable and unyielding, looks a formidable 

 obstacle, but almost any horse or pony could hop over it. 

 Open water or a clean-cut drain I2ft. wide appears, in cold 

 blood, a positive arm of the sea ; still, every stride of a blood 

 horse at a gallop on the flat covers nearly twice as much. 

 A high, hairy fence, with goodness knows what on the other 

 side, looks forbidding enough, but the combined weight of 

 man and horse, say i,40olbs., has a good deal of smashing 

 power, and the drain beyond is not likely to further any agri- 

 cultural requirement by being at the outside more than 

 4ft. wide. The horse, if sailing on, would clear half as much 

 again in his stride. A wall is seldom more than 3ft. gins, 

 high, but if mortared on the top what a serious proposition 

 it is ; but the " take-off " is always good and landing 

 sound. Walls are the safest jumps of all. No one would 

 or could build a wall on boggy ground, nor alongside 

 a drain. All the above obstacles to our progress are 

 within the powers of any moderately good horse, provided 

 always that the " take off " is good. Out of deep 

 plough, up-hill, any horse can fall over a brush fence; 

 while taking off from a muddy hedge bottom, poached 

 by cattle and ill defined, the best horse may make a 

 mistake. A pumped-out horse may fall over anything. 

 You must and will have falls; a few do no harm, to 

 show you how easy they are; but what we are out for is 

 to get over the country without falls. I have hunted for 



