HUNTING 135 



way of keeping to the front and yet avoiding the danger 

 of riding over hounds is (when fortunate enough to 

 know the lay of the land) to choose a line well to the 

 side of the pack, taking care, of course, that plenty of 

 room is left in case they should turn sharply. In this 

 position one can ride up farther than were one directly 

 behind them. 



There are some fortunate people who are blessed 

 with a marvellous "bump of location," and who, even 

 in a new country, are almost unerringly able to choose 

 their own line, but not all of us have this faculty. I per- 

 sonally am one of those unfortunates who can quite 

 successfully lose myself in my own back yard, and 

 many of my friends tease me by saying that the real 

 reason why I ride straight to hounds is because if I 

 didn't I would become irretrievably lost. This fail- 

 ing on my part always rather worried me until I heard 

 that Captain " Doggie" Smith, who was at one time 

 considered one of the best over Leicestershire, once 

 jumped into a field in front of the house in which he 

 was staying and asked where he was! 



For the newcomer to a country, or for those like 

 myself, to whom their native heath seems always new 

 and unfamiliar, it is perhaps wiser to pick out as a 

 sort of " pilot" some man in the field who rides straight 

 and hard. One should, however, never let the pilot 

 know what function he is performing, for it is ex- 

 tremely annoying to feel that one is responsible for 

 another's falls and mishaps. In hunting for the first 

 time in a strange country I have often chosen a pilot, 

 but it was not until I, in turn, was one day so chosen, 

 when hunting with the Ward Union Staghounds in 

 Ireland, that I realized how very irritating it was. My 

 follower was a merry soul, mounted on a hired nag 



