RIDING TO HOUNDS. 259 



he would be sufficiently relieved to proceed. Thus 

 the country of all others which puts the physical 

 powers of horses to the greatest test in following 

 hounds, is one which is hilly, and totally without 

 fences, of which the Sussex South Downs, in the 

 neighbourhood of Brighton, may be taken as a sam- 

 ple. Nothing but a thorough-bred horse, and a 

 good one too, can live quite alongside hounds, going 

 their very best pace, more than half an hour over 

 such a country as this, and very few can do even 

 so much, if they carry more than average weight. 

 The open ploughed countries, such as great part of 

 Wiltshire and Hampshire, are for the same reason 

 very distressing to horses, and require them to have 

 a great share of blood ; but hounds do not, neither 

 can they, run so fast over ploughed ground, as over 

 old, or maiden turf, which the Sussex Downs are 

 clothed with. In the first place, the scent over the 

 former is seldom so good; secondly, the ground is not 

 only not elastic, which the other is, but it impedes 

 the progress of hounds from two other causes ; its 

 surface is less even, and the soil of all ploughed 

 land sticks more or less to the feet of hounds ; or. 

 in the language of the huntsman, it " carries'" inva- 

 riably after a slight frost on the previous night. 



We now resume our advice to the young fox- 

 hunting horseman : — It is the practice of all first- 

 rate horsemen over a country to ride slowly at the 

 majority of fences. For example, if the ditch be 

 on the rising side, you may cause your horse to 

 put his feet into it before he rises at the hedge, if 

 vou hurry him at it. Should the ditch be on the 



