212 . RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



advisable to avoid the crowd. Many of the hedgerows 

 are double, with a ditch on each side, and to wait for 

 your turn amongst a hundred horsemen, some too bold, 

 some too cautious, would entail such delay as must 

 prove fatal with a good scent. Happily, there are 

 plenty of gates, and a deer preferring timber to any 

 other leap, usually selects this convenient mode of 

 transit. Should they be chained, look for a weak place 

 in the fence, which, being double, will admit of sub- 

 dividing your leap by two, and your chance of a fall 

 by ten. 



At first you may be somewhat puzzled on entering a 

 field to find your way out. I will suppose that in other 

 countries you have been accustomed to select the easiest 

 place at once in the fence you are approaching, and to 

 make for it without delay, but across these large fields 

 the nature of an obstacle deceives your eye. The two 

 contiguous hedges that form one boundary render it 

 very difficult to determine at a distance where the 

 easiest place is, so you will find it best to follow the 

 hounds, and take your chance. The deer, like your 

 horse, is a large quadruped, and, except under unusual 

 circumstances, where one goes the other can probably 

 follow. 



This, I fear, is a sad temptation to ride on the 



