FOX-HUNTING 5 



favourite of mine, and I did shout, ' Look at Ruby 

 now,' as she streamed along two or three lengths 

 in front of the pack. Ten minutes more, and they 

 had him. The check did not let many up, and 

 few saw the fine point which Ruby made. Oh ! 

 there can be no comparison as to which was the 

 best run." Quite right, my friend, X. Y. Z., and 

 if the critic answers that only the few men who ride 

 in the very first flight can see these things, I reply 

 that very often the very first flight men do not 

 see what takes place under their very eyes, and 

 that many a man who has no pretensions to being 

 a "bruiser" sees more of the hound work than 

 the man who gallops and jumps, and has no time 

 for anything else. 



Take Slocum, for instance. In his best days 

 he was never what the late Mr. George Lane Fox 

 would have called a " thrusting scoundrel." If a 

 big place came in his way he would jump it, but 

 he preferred a little one, and in a very few years 

 he preferred a line of gates. But he did not give 

 up ; not he. As then so now, he hunts his 

 four and sometimes five days a week, and finds 

 time to do a good deal of useful work besides. 

 His knowledge of woodcraft and knowledge of 

 country are exceptionally good, and it is good to 

 bet on that he will see most of the fun without 

 riding in the first flight. In a racing burst 

 of twenty minutes, of course, he is not seen to 

 advantage, but given a run, however fast it may 

 be, it is a slight shade of odds that Slocum is there 

 at the critical moment, and should it happen, as it 

 does sometimes, that the huntsman is not quite 

 with his hounds, owing to an unlucky turn or a 

 fall, it is to Slocum that that worthy appeals for 



