214 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



you and your horse consider it ought to be nearly 

 over. 



Directly you observe a deer, that has hitherto gone 

 straight, describing a series of circles, you may think 

 about going home. 



It is tired at last, and will give you no more fun for 

 a month. You should offer assistance to the men, and, 

 even if it be not accepted, remain, as a matter of 

 courtesy, to see your quarry properly taken, and sent 

 back to the paddock in its cart. 



With all stag-hounds, the same rules would seem 

 to apply. Never care to view it, and above all, unless 

 expressly requested to do so for a reason/ avoid 

 the solecism of "riding the deer." On the mode in 

 which this sport is conducted depends the whole 

 difference between a wild exhilarating pastime and 

 a tame uninteresting parade. Though prejudice will 

 not allow it is the real thing, we cannot but admit the 

 excellence of the imitation, and a man must possess 

 a more logical mind, a less excitable temperament, 

 than is usually allotted to sportsmen, who can remember, 

 while sailing along with hounds running hard over 

 a flying country, that he is only "trying to catch 

 what he had already," and has turned a hand- 

 some hairy-coated quadruped out of a box for the 



