LEARNING TO RIDE. , 23 



covert side, faultlessly got up, and well mounted. He 

 looked as if he had been hunting four days a week all 

 his life, and when hounds ran, without being an absolute 

 thruster, he took a good place and kept it. In fact, 

 no one for a moment could have imagined that he was 

 hunting for the first time since he was about fourteen 

 years old ; but such was actually the case, and it is 

 quite certain that he had profited by and remembered 

 what he had learnt in early youth. The antipodes 

 of this case was a Londoner who came into a large 

 country estate when about fifty-five years of age. He 

 was a horsey-looking man, with a capital seat on a 

 horse, who looked the middle-aged country squire 

 of sporting tastes to the life. His appearance created 

 a most favourable impression, but he was a perfect 

 ignoramus in all matters connected with hunting, and 

 yet it took several weeks for the field to find it out, 

 so much did his appearance belie him. Thus, when he 

 holloaed a hare it was thought he was short-sighted ; 

 when he charged a man who was walking through a 

 gap and knocked him out of his saddle, it was said 

 that his horse had bolted ; but when the Master suggested 

 drawing his coverts, and asked where he would like 

 the meet to be, his answer of " Will you want meat for 

 the hounds as well as luncheon for yourselves ? " 

 fairly gave him away. He did not hunt for long, and 

 the last the writer heard of him was a complaint that 

 the hunt " had invaded the privacy of his private 

 domain, had frightened his swans, and done consider- 

 able damage to his ornamental shrubs." 



About this learning to ride there are nowadays so 

 many opinions and ideas that advice and suggestion 



