A FEW HINTS 203 



hunting and inadvertently slips into one fault 

 after another without there being anyone there 

 to put him right. And the reason for my im- 

 pressing this strongly is that the percentage of 

 legitimate falls in the hunting field is exceedingly 

 small when compared to the number of dirty 

 coats. I don't mean to infer that the majority 

 of the gallant ladies and gentlemen who return 

 home from hunting cut voluntaries, nothing of 

 the kind. But I have no hesitation in saying 

 that in the vast majority of cases the horses that 

 come to grief are well helped by their riders. If 

 anyone doubts me let him go out some day to 

 look on, as I have done on occasion when on the 

 sick list. He will see many a horse fairly pulled 

 down, or I am much mistaken. A tug at the 

 bridle whether conscious or unconscious has the 

 same effect and when a man gets a little sideways 

 on his saddle and takes a pull at his horse's 

 mouth at the same time the combination of 

 circumstances, nine times out of ten, has only 

 one result. And as I have had occasion to re- 

 mark more than once accidents will happen in the 

 best regulated of famiUes, and as Egerton War- 

 burton has it — 



We are all of us tailors in turn, 



with all the precautions we can take. So it is just 

 as well that these precautions should be taken 

 to acquire the best seat and hands possible before 

 the aspirant to fame comes out hunting. 



I knew a man who went hunting. He was 



