38 Fox-Hunting on the Road, 



boy! But not quite yet. You must not forget 

 that you have been taught, as they say in Ken- 

 tucky, to canter all day long in the shade of an 

 apple tree, if so be it your master wishes. You 

 shall have your gallop anon. But you must never 

 forget that a horse who can only walk or go a 

 twelve mile trot or hand-gallop, though he may 

 lead the hunt cross-country, is an unmitigated 

 nuisance on the road. Slow and easy gaits are as 

 valuable to the park-hack as long wind and speed 

 to the racer. And although Boston, as yet, boasts 

 no Rotten Row, are not the daily rides through 

 its exquisite environments the equivalent of the 

 canter in that justly celebrated resort, rather than 

 the mere country tramp upon a handy roadster or 

 the ride to cover on a rapid covert-hack.? And 

 yet our imitation of our British cousins has ap- 

 proximated less to the pleasure ride than to the 

 cross-country style. Perhaps, in our eagerness to 

 convince ourselves that we have learned all there 

 is worth knowing in the art, we have aped what 

 is confessedly the finest of horseback sports, and 

 forgotten the more moderate fashion of Hyde 

 Park. Let us remember that we can saunter on 

 the road every day, while riding to hounds is for 

 most of us a rarish luxury. • 



