RIDING AFTER HOUNDS 



THE men who ride to hounds can be divided 

 into two classes : the first flight men, and 

 the men who though scarcely in the first 

 flight are of it, men who will take a line of their 

 own and who are always in a good place in a run 

 though seldom in the best place. The men who 

 ride after hounds may be divided into several 

 classes. There is the man who once belonged to 

 the first flight ; there are men who follow on on 

 the line through the gaps, and who by dint of 

 happy ' nicks in ' see a lot of the fun ; there are 

 the men who unblushingly ride to points who see 

 more ; and so on down to our friend who was 

 described in a previous chapter who means to 

 jump a fence some day in the dim and distant 

 future. 



The majority of hunting men and hunting 

 women belong to the various classes who ride 

 ' after ' hounds instead of to them, but the un- 

 initiated who thinks they do not see plenty of 

 fun or that they do not know much about hunt- 

 ing is very much mistaken ; and if he is a novice, 

 full of ambition as he may be, it may easily be his 

 destiny to drop into the ranks of those who ride 

 after hounds himself. It is so much easier to talk 



