36 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



gallops which would prove such a sure test of your 

 horse's stamina, and — equally important — of your 

 own. Perhaps, to a man who thinks that hunting 

 means nothing more than over-riding hounds in 

 Leicestershire or Northamptonshire pastures, the 

 advice to hunt with the Devon and Somerset is 

 superfluous. He would go down, look at the horse 

 which he hired with undisguised contempt, dub the 

 country impossible, and think his time wasted. In 

 other words, he would see nothing. But there are 

 men who can hold their own with the best, men 

 who " rush across the brimming brook, who top 

 the post and rail," to whom the grand instinct of 

 the hound appeals as strongly as does the " mad- 

 ness of the gallop, fifty minutes on the grass " ; 

 and they are the men whom I venture to advise in 

 the matter of early hunting, and for them I give a 

 few of my own impressions and experiences. If 

 they are the men I take them for, we shall, I think, 

 find subject for mutual congratulation when we 

 forgather after their hunting experiences in the 

 " wild west country." 



In the first place I would strongly advise any one 

 who intends to hunt with the Devon and Somerset 

 not to take his own horses. The probability is 

 that if he does he will find himself in a " tight 

 place," out of which he will have some difficulty in 

 getting with credit to himself, or even with safety. 

 I had to ride up and down a precipitous sort of 

 place, nearly as steep as a house-side, which I 

 tackled with a tremor cordis which was certainly 

 not shared by the good mare placed at my disposal, 

 and I may say that I would sooner face the biggest 

 jumpable place in Yorkshire on one of my own 

 horses, with the certainty of a fall, than ride the 



