RIDING AFTER HOUNDS 221 



about ' going into every field with hounds' than 

 it is to do it. 



It has been stated that in the ranks of those 

 who ride after hounds are many who have a 

 thorough knowledge of hunting — indeed if they 

 had not they could never see so much sport as 

 they do. I have known one or two of them 

 whose powers of ' nicking in ' with hounds were 

 something marvellous. On one occasion, which 

 I shall ever remember, I got a bad start. Hounds 

 had been gone from a wood some few minutes 

 before I knew they had found. It was a windy 

 sunny November day, and even when I knew 

 they had found I was in no hurry. But when I 

 got to the edge of the wood and saw nothing I 

 hurried on. Another two or three minutes and 

 there were hounds racing along a mile or more 

 in front of me. I was very wroth and put on the 

 steam but as is usual in such circumstances I 

 could get no nearer. Crossing a road I saw a 

 friend who belonged to the class I am writing 

 about plodding along at a steady canter on the 

 hard high road. I said something to him about 

 missing a start and was proceeding to go across 

 country in the direction in which I had last seen 

 hounds running when he stopped me, saying I 

 should never catch hounds up across such a deep 

 country, and that if I did get to them my horse 

 would be pumped. He guaranteed that we 

 would be in the same field with hounds in a 

 quarter of an hour if I would go with him and 

 insisted that there was no hurry. So we cantered 



