HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 47 



will see tlic female habit very frequently with tlie 

 hounds. 



The difficulty that lies in a young lady's way of 

 being with hounds is the fact that she can't always 

 get a lady chaperon who Avill had her to the front. 

 Unfortunately, some of the most approved chaperons 

 grow quite out of their hunting form, and, however 

 well practised they may have been in earlier years, 

 increasing weight and softened down ambition 

 tend in no way now to a lead with hounds. A 

 young lady may be a most graceful rider, she may 

 have the best, the safest, and the fastest horses, 

 yet, unless some one pilots the way for her across 

 country, selects the lightest ground and the most 

 practicable parts of the fences, she is at a loss for 

 the line that tends best to safety and success. To 

 find a pilot then is a most difficult thing; for, if 

 a gentleman, he should be one tluxt, in piloting a 

 lady, should forget his own interests, if necessary, 

 in his attention to hers; he should Ijo quiet, un- 

 obtrusive, unostentatious, and unassuming ; but 

 these virtues, I regret to say, are very rare, and 

 nothing is to be regretted more than seeing 

 a lady riding after a noisy, screeching, harum- 

 scarum leader, who wishes the world to see 



