442 The Book of the Horse. 



than by the most desperate leap. Never forget that your sport depends on the hounds first 

 and the huntsman next. 



Two of the best Masters who ever hunted their own fox-hounds never swore themselves, 

 nor permitted their servants to swear, in the field ; but even strong adjectives are excusable 

 in an old M.F.H. when a lot of jealous riders rush up and over-ride the scent at a check. 



Generally speaking, it is an afternoon fox, that has completely digested the feast of the 

 night, which affords the best sport — or a dog-fox in the clicketing season, who has travelled 

 far out of his district to visit some distant seraglio. 



If there were two hundred horsemen when the fox broke away, there would be hardly more 

 than ten up in the field where he was run into, if the pace was a real gallop all the way 

 and the time full twenty-five minutes over a strongly-fenced country ; perhaps twice as many 

 more — including those clever old customers who rode to points instead of running the line» 

 and knew every convenient gap, gate, and bridle-run in the country by heart — got up before 

 the last vestige of the fox had disappeared, and the huntsman mounted and moved away. 

 The rest, except those who kept strictly to a convenient road, if there was one, would be scattered 

 in all directions, reduced to the slowest of trots, or obliged to walk, in consequence of the 

 loss of shoes that no one ever was able to find. Much depends on the fences. In an open 

 country like Cheshire, for instance, twenty abreast may take the fences. But the thinning- 

 out is much more fearful in a real run from one of the crack Wednesday meets of the 

 Pytchley bitch pack, as described by a resident — "All grass, chiefly strong (cattle) feeding- 

 land ; the fences 'oxers,' cut and plashed with stubs as thick as your arm and as sharp as a 

 palisade, or left as bullfinches, a ditch on one side, and a single rail to catch your horse's 

 knees, if he is clumsy or tired, on the other ; fearful crushes at the gates ; nearly as bad at 

 the gaps, in which there is room for about ten to get in front ; and although there may be 

 fifty eager ones at the start, there is generally plenty of room at the end of a quick five- 

 and- twenty minutes.-" 



It is in such countries that blood, condition, and determined horsemanship tell ; and you 

 may follow the advice of Egerton Warburton to the letter : — 



" If your horse be well bred, and in blooming condition, 

 Both up to the country and up to your weight. 

 Oh then give the reins to your youthful ambition, 



Sit down in the saddle, and keep his head straight ! " 



But, first, you must be sure of yourself, and, next, of your horse. 



Paraphrasing the lines attributed to Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth, our only answer 

 to those who, if they spoke truly, would say — 



" Fain would I tide but that I fear to fall." 

 is — 



" If you're afraid, then do not ride at all." 



It is all very well to say — 



" Oh give me the man to whom nought comes amiss — 

 One horse or another, that country or this — 

 Through falls and bad starts, who undauntedly still 

 Rides up to this motto — 'Be with 'cm 1 will !'" 



