CHAPTER IV. 



LEARNING TO RIDE. 



Every season produces whole batches of recruits to 

 hunting who are of mature years, and such people are, 

 as a rule, more in need of advice as to their conduct 

 than are the infantile beginners. The older novice class 

 takes a very wide range indeed. Some parents will not 

 allow their boys and girls to hunt until the days of 

 education are over, and thus one constantly sees young 

 folk who make their first appearance when somewhere 

 between eighteen and twenty years of age. As a 

 rule, those who begin at this time of life have learnt to 

 ride before they attempt to follow hounds, but there 

 are exceptions even to this rule, and not long ago I saw 

 a midshipman at home on leave out hunting for the first 

 time, who candidly admitted that he had never ridden 

 anything but a donkey before, and that only when he 

 was quite a child. He appeared at the meet on a well- 

 bred hack of sedate manners, but his seat was not elegant, 

 and he held his reins clubbed together in a bunch. He 

 was, however, supremely confident, and all went well 

 until hounds were just about to be put into covert, 

 when the field one by one hopped over an 18in. rail 

 into an enclosure adjoining the gorse which was being 



