22 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



course. Do not bring him again over the same place, 

 rather take him on for two or three fields in a line 

 parallel to the hounds. By the time they are put into 

 covert you will have established a mutual understand- 

 ing, and found out how much you dislike one another 

 at the worst ! It is well now to avoid the crowd, but 

 beware of taking up a position by yourself where you 

 may head the fox ! No man can ride in good-humour 

 under a sense of guilt, and you must be good-humoured 

 with such a mount as you have under you to-day. 



Exhaust, therefore, all your knowledge of woodcraft 

 to get away on good terms with the hounds. The 

 wildest romp in a rush of horses is often perfectly 

 temperate and amenable when called on to cut out 

 the work. Should you, by ill luck, find yourself behind 

 others in the first field, avoid, if possible, following any 

 one of them over the first fence. Even though it be 

 somewhat black and forbidding, choose a fresh place, 

 so free a horse as yours will jump the more carefully 

 that his attention is not distracted by a leader, and 

 there is the further consideration, based on common 

 humanity, that your leader might fall when too late 

 for you to stop. No man is in so false a position as 

 he who rides over a friend in the hunting field, except 

 the friend ! 



