222 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



any fox on earth, with scarce an effort from the animal 

 itself. But that hounds are creatures of habit, and 

 huntsmen in the flying countries miracles of patience, 

 no less than their masters, not a nose would be nailed 

 on the kennel-door, after cub-hunting was over, from 

 one end of the shires to the other. 



Nothing surprises me so much as to see a pack of 

 hounds, like the Belvoir or the Quorn, come up through 

 a crowd of horses and stick to the line of their fox, or 

 fling gallantly forward to recover it, without a thought 

 of personal danger or the slightest misgiving that not 

 one man in ten is master of the two pair of hoofs 

 beneath him, carrying death in every shoe. Were they 

 not bred for the make-and-shape that gives them speed 

 no less than for fineness of nose, but especially for that 

 dash which, like all victorious qualities, leaves some- 

 thing to chance, they could never get a field from 

 the covert. It does happen, however, that, now and 

 again, a favourable stroke of fortune puts a couple of 

 furlongs between the hounds and their pursuers. A 

 hundred-acre field of well saturated grass lies before 

 them, down go their noses, out go their sterns, and away 

 they scour, at a pace which makes a precious example 

 of young Rapid on a first-class steeple-chase horse with 

 the wrong bridle in its mouth. 



