196 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



they do not derive less assistance than excitement from 

 the human voice. Much depends on circumstances, 

 much on the nature of the pack. I will not say you are 

 never to open your mouth, but I think that if the 

 inmates of our deaf and dumb asylums kept hounds, 

 these would show sport above the average, and would 

 seldom go home without blood. Noise is by no means 

 a necessary concomitant of the chase, and a hat held up, 

 or a quiet whisper to the huntsman, is of more help to 

 him than the loudest and clearest view-holloa that ever 

 wakened the dead " from the lungs of John Peel in 

 the morning." 



We have hitherto supposed that you are riding a good 

 horse, in a good place, and have been so fortunate as to 

 meet with none of those reverses that are nevertheless 

 to be expected on occasion, particularly when hounds rum 

 hard and the ground is deep. The best of hunters may 

 fall, the boldest of riders be defeated by an impracticable 

 fence. Hills, bogs, a precipitous ravine, or even an 

 unlucky turn in a wood may place you at a mile's disad- 

 vantage, almost before you have realised your mistake, 

 and you long for the wings of an eagle, while cursing 

 the impossibility of taking back so much as a single 

 minute from the past. It seems so easy to ride a run 

 \vhen it is over ! 



