RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS. 19 1 



have been running hard on pasture, brought sud- 

 denly to a check on the dusty sun-dried fallows. 

 After dashing and snatching in vain for a furlong or 

 so, they will literally quarter their ground like pointers, 

 till they recover the line, every yard of which they 

 make good, with noses down and sterns working as 

 if from the concentrated energy of all their faculties, 

 till suspicion becomes certainty, and they lay themselves 

 out once more, in the uncontrolled ecstasy of pursuit. 



Now if you are a mile behind, you miss all these 

 interesting incidents, and lose, as does your disappointed 

 hunter, more than half the amusement you both came 

 out to enjoy. The latter too, works twice as hard when 

 held back in the rear, as when ridden freely and 

 fearlessly in front. The energy expended in fighting 

 with his rider would itself suffice to gallop many a 

 furlong and leap many a fence, while the moral effect 

 of disappointment is most disheartening to a creature 

 of such a highly-strung nervous organisation. Look 

 at the work done by a huntsman's horse before the 

 very commencement of some fine run, the triumphant 

 conclusion of which depends so much on his freshness 

 at the finish, and yet how rarely does he succumb to 

 the labour of love imposed ; but then he usually leaves 

 the covert in close proximity to his friends the hounds, 



