SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 145 



He must think and act for himself, and he will find 

 more than sufficient opportunities for exhibiting the 

 very best talents he may be endowed with. To 

 a certain extent he has been initiated into the 

 mysteries of the science, and cannot have passed 

 through his ordeal as whipper-in without observing 

 the acts and deeds of his predecessor how he has 

 hunted and handled his pack. But looking on at 

 others playing a game of cricket is a very different 

 affair to playing it yourself. You may see how it 

 is done, but when the bat is placed in your own 

 hands, you will make the discovery that theory is 

 not practice. Besides which, the duties of a whipper- 

 in vary much from those of a huntsman. These, 

 however, we may have occasion to notice in their 

 proper place. 



As to physical abilities, a strong constitution is 

 needful to enable any man to undergo the hardships 

 of hunting a pack of foxhounds. Setting aside 

 the wear and tear of every-day life during the 

 season, through all kinds of weather, casualties still 

 occur, even to the best rider falls, knockings 

 about, hard blows, perhaps a broken collar-bone or 

 ribs, which will prove of what stamina the corpo- 

 real is composed. To be always with his hounds, 

 he must be a first-rate horseman ; not a bold, reck- 

 less rider ; and as to weight, we think twelve or 

 thirteen stone in the saddle quite as likely to hold 

 his own over a stiff vale country as one under. 

 Big fences more often obstruct light weights and 

 light-made horses than those of the contrary calibre 

 or stamp. A little horse, to be always taking high 



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