HIDING TO HOUNDS oo7 



and utricle, of llaiiibletoniaii would be useless iu any countis', however 

 valuable at Newmarket ; l^ut it is a quick man upon a quick horse 

 that in nineteen countries out of twenty gets best to hounds. By a 

 quick man, I mean one who has a good eye to the direction his 

 hounds are going in — who turns as his hounds turn— has a good eye 

 to practicable places in his fences, and, when he comes to them, is 

 decisive in ]iis determination to go at them. In many other things 

 besides riding over a country, he who stops to consider is lost ; but 

 in this decision is everything. The " iion proiircdi, est rerjrcdi,'' ixiay 

 be particularly applied to riding to hounds. When we stop, they 

 are going ; and catching hounds with a holding scent is what few 

 men and horses are equal to. The celebrated Dick Knight's speech 

 to Lord Spencer, when he hunted his hounds, proved he was of this 

 opinion. He had just ridden over a rasper, which his Lord stopped 

 to look at. — "Come along, my Lord," said Dick; "the more you 

 look, the less you'll like it." 



By a quick horse, I mean one that is quick on getting on his speed 

 again after having been stopped at his fences, and is handy in being 

 pulled up or turned. This is the horse that will distinguish himsel 

 in enclosed countries, where hounds seldom run or men seldom 

 ride straight. It was this wonderful quickness at his fences, indepen- 

 dent of his speed, that gave that famous horse "the Clipper " such 

 an advantage over a country when hounds ran hard. Whether the 

 ditch was towards him, or from him, he would not suli'er himself to 

 be collected, or pulled together, therefore lost no time in his fences. 

 He was on his speed again, as it were, before other horses had scarcely- 

 alighted on the ground. Thus taking all sorts of fences in this rapid 

 way, without suffering himself to be collected, might do very well 

 with Mr. Lindo on his back, but it is not every man's nerve or finger 

 that it would suit. It enabled him, however, to go a mile and a 

 half over a country on the Clipper, whilst many others were going a 

 mile. 



In my experience of men riding to hounds, I have made the follow- 

 ing remark — that it is not because a man is a good horseman, that he 

 puts his horse well at his fences, and is not afraid of them, that he 

 can live with hounds. On the conti'ary, I have seen numbers 



