284 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



have seen little or nothing of the game and have done their 

 second horse to a turn. 



Ride always to save your horse. That is horsemanship. 

 It is far more to your credit to come in to the death with a 

 comparatively fresh horse, having ridden the line, than to 

 do the first flight or steeplechase act. Riding a steeple- 

 chase between the fags is one thing. Fox-hunting is another 

 thing altogether. If you have no interest in anything but 

 the galloping part of the game, join a drag-hunt or hire a 

 race-course and have done with it. You can hardly please 

 the Master or huntsman more than to keep out of the 

 game altogether. You might as well, in playing base-ball, 

 take no interest in the game apart from racing the other 

 fellows round the bases for the home plate. The principle 

 would be precisely the same. 



Don't take it upon yourself to advise a huntsman, even if 

 you feel sure he is going wrong. Let him manage the 

 hounds to suit himself. When the game is over, look him 

 up and ask him why he drew one covert up-wind and the 

 next one down, or any other question you like. You will 

 be surprised at his wonderful fund of woodcraft, and will 

 find that he is as ready to talk to you now as you are to 

 listen. You will probably see that had he done what you 

 thought he ought to have done, he would have lost his 

 fox. He generally knows all that you do and a great deal 

 more. Never presume to advise in the field; even the 

 Master of Hounds himself never meddles with the game 

 after hounds throw off. "I think the huntsman is wrong 

 this time," you may say to the Master. "I think so myself," 

 says the Master, "but he is hunting the hounds, and we 



