152 J HE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



CHAPTEE XL 



ADVENTURES WITH THE HOUNDS. 



BOLDNESS is essential to good riding, and a really 

 nervous man should never attempt fox-hunting. If 

 he does not find every timid emotion banished by 

 the voice of the hounds and the music of the horn, 

 he is certainly out of place, and had better quietly 

 ride home ; for the man who speculates on the con- 

 sequences of a leap is very apt to come to grief. 

 But on the other hand, foolish recklessness is not to 

 be advocated, and can only be excused in that man 

 who knows that his life is of little value either to 

 himself or others. 



Some imagine that the object of fox-hunting is 

 to ride as hard as possible, and leap all the most 

 difficult fences that can be found; but the true 

 sportsman, while he never refuses any obstacle it is 

 necessary to cross, does not go out of his way to 

 seek sensation leaps. In fact, he rides to hounds 

 does not head them, or gallop wildly through the 

 pack, perhaps laming or killing some of the best 

 of the dogs. Indeed, there have been hunting-men, 



