224 A HUNTING CATECHISM 



being prepared for the weight that will come 

 upon it. 



It is well to visit other packs occasionally, 

 though a practice of constantly selecting good 

 meets with them sometimes ends in mortification, 

 from missing a good run with your own pack 

 and having a bad day with the one selected. He 

 who sticks to his own hounds, taking the 

 favourite and the unfashionable fixtures as they 

 come, is almost sure to be in " the good thing " 

 when it does come off, and often this occurs 

 when least expected. Though if the huntsman 

 of your own pack has unfortunately proved 

 himself incompetent, and the neighbouring 

 huntsman is a genius, it can scarcely be expected 

 that any one should sacrifice his season for the 

 sake of being a martyr to principle ! 



A first-rate rider to hounds must be possessed 

 of many natural gifts, that surely some good 

 fairy must bestow on him at his birth, and it 

 is no doubt owing to the rarity of their all being 

 combined in one individual, that so few attain to 

 the position of being able to take their own line, 

 and hold their place to the end of a really fine 

 gallop. Many a good man can take his own line, 

 so long as there is some one else alongside, 

 or slightly in front, who insensibly maps out the 

 direction to be followed, and who is gifted with 

 that eye to hounds which is so rare. But 

 supposing the fugleman comes to grief, or drops 

 back from the inability of his horse to sustain the 

 pressure of the pace, the other resembles a ship 

 without a rudder, and loses sight and touch of 

 the pack within two or three fields. It is not 

 always from want of nerve or decision, but rather 

 from not having an intuitive knowledge of what 



