CHAPTER FOUR. 



THE START OF THE SEASON. 



BEFORE these lines appear in print most packs will 

 either have begun, or their opening meets will be 

 close at hand. The time seems appropriate to 

 think over our misdeeds in the past and to form good 

 resolutions for the future. There is some intoxicant in 

 the sport of fox-hunting that goes to the head and 

 makes its devotees do strange things they would not 

 dream of under other circumstances. The keener a 

 man is, the more likely he is to be drunk with the spirit 

 of the chase, and the onlooker must therefore be asked to 

 forgive this temporary lapse from sobriety. In common 

 courtesy to the non-hunting world, we ought at this 

 period of the year to think very seriously of our conduct 

 before we set out to ride across country. In the heat 

 and ardour of a gallop in which we may happen to be well 

 placed, we are apt to forget everything except the desire 

 to be near hounds, but before the season begins it would 

 be as well in cool moments to impress on our minds 

 certain fixed rules. 



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