Thb. Pullman Car a Hunting Machine. 439 



have long been an established system ; and even Market Harborough may be reached by 

 rail from London in time to meet the hounds. I once met a contractor who was in the habit 

 of taking a special train to get to fox-hounds ; but, as he failed for half a million, and paid 

 an insignificant dividend, his is not an example to be recommended to men who, using 

 ordinary conveyances, ought to be punctual. 



The railway directors of the best hunting lines run specials, and put on drop carriages 

 to express trains, for the accommodation of hunting-men. A party of from half a dozen to a 

 dozen can engage a saloon carriage, provided with a dressing-room and even cooking arrange- 

 ments. The finishing-stroke has been put to the luxuries of hunting by the addition of 

 American sleeping-cars — dressing-rooms by day, bed-rooms by night^ — so that you may breakfast 

 going down, dine, or take tea, and sleep or play whist returning. The Midland and London 

 and North-Western Companies have found it worth while to make direct extensions for the 

 accommodation of hunting-men ; and all over the kingdom the locomotive has become a hunting 

 machine. 



HOW TO RIDE TO H01JND.S. 



Hoys, to the hunting-field ! Though 'tis Novembei 



The wind 's in the south ; — but a word ere we start : 

 However excited, you'll please to remember 



That hunting 's a science, and riding an art. 

 The fo.x takes precedence of all from the cover ; 



The hunter 's an animal purposely bred, 

 After the pack to be ridden, not over; 



Fox-hounds are not reared to be knocked on the head. 



Warburlon^s " Words Ere 'U'£ Star/.'" 



To ride to fox -hounds in a satisfactory, not to say the best manner, requires a knowledge 

 of the sport, a knowledge of the geography of the country to be ridden over, the horsemanship 

 which enables a man to make the best of his horse without using him up before the run is over, 

 and that sort of courage which is expressed by " a warm heart and a cool head." 



There are butcher-boys who have never seen a hound, and sailors who have scarcely 

 ever crossed a horse, who, astride a perfect hunter, with a good start, a burning scent and 

 flying leaps to skim, would in a single burst head and cut down a good many older and 

 better sportsmen. In fact, when it comes to mere hard riding, the recklessness of youth will 

 generally get the better of the experience of age in any country where spurs tell more than 

 hands — where a bold, not a clever horse is required. 



There is an enormous difference between the brilliant horseman — the mellow veteran 

 who has made hunting for more than a quarter of a century the business of his life, still in 

 the prime of equestrian vigour, mounted on one of a stud selected with first-rate judgment, 

 the man and horse perfectly acquainted with each other, sailing over a country of sound 

 turf and big fences, with every yard of which he is as familiar as with the fences of his 

 private training-ground — and the politician, the Queen's Counsel, or the journalist, who snatches 

 one month out of the year to ride strange horses in a strange country. 



" Any one who keeps well up with hounds is a hard rider ; but the man who always 

 takes a line of his own, and leads, is one in a hundred. It is unlucky that as a rule the 

 men who do lead are ruffians."* This harsh opinion is borne out, not only by the biographies of 



• " Notes of Thought," by the late Charles Buxton, M.P, 



