RIDING TO HOUNDS 393 



iind how so great an event has been acl)ievod, few modern sportsmen 

 can with any degree of accuracy relate. 



" Many years ago, I recollect a gentleman who kept ten horses in 

 Leicestershire, and who had been riding near me very often in a 

 very fine run, in which two of the most interesting and beautiful 

 things happened that ever I remember to have seen, and to whom I 

 remarked them when the run was over. ' Good God, sir,' said he, 

 ' I saw nothing of it.' This was a hard rider, who, from his own 

 account, saw nothimj while riding his horse as hard as he could go, 

 and as near the tail of the hounds as he could possibly get. And 

 how should he? for a man behind the hounds cannot be a judge of 

 what is going on in front, and is the first person (by pressing upon 

 them) to bring them to a check. 



" A good sportsman will as often as possible ride parallel witli the 

 pack, not after them, unless by short turns he is obliged to do 

 otherwise ; by which means he can see everything that is going on, 

 and anticipate the probable cause of hounds coming to a fault ; and 

 I believe a good huntsman, and a minute observer, will twice out of 

 three times discover the object in the line of hounds that caused it, 

 and, as soon as he suspects it, pull up his horse : for instance, a 

 church, a village, a farm-house, team at plough, men at work, sheep, 

 and above all, cattle, are the things most likely to impede the scent 

 (be it remembered, that the breath of one cow will distract hounds 

 more than a hundred sheep). When any of these objects present 

 themselves in the face of hounds, you may then anticipate a stop, 

 and, by pulling up your liorse, and observing which way the pack 

 inchned before the check, you will l)e able (witliout casting) to hold 

 them to the right or left acccordingly. 



" If casting is necessaiy you should be directed l^y the pace, or 

 degree of scent which you brought to the spot where the hounds 

 threw up : if you came quick, and your hounds are not blown (be 

 sure to attend to that), you make a quick cast in the direction which 

 the hounds were inclining, by forming a small circle first, and a 

 larger circle afterw^ards if you are not successful : but if the hounds 

 are blown, you should invariably cast them very quietly, and hold 

 them back ; for when hounds have run a long way hard, they lose 



