LAST MORNING EXERCISE 55 



a reverie as your horse jogs along, a reverie only 

 to be broken by the playfulness on the part of your 

 horse as he hears the note of the horn you both of 

 you love so well, which announces that you have 

 arrived at the place at which you had arranged to 

 meet your friend the huntsman and his charges. 



Having joined forces you jog along through 

 bridle roads and across patches of common, and 

 as this there is no time so good to get to know 

 the entry and to renew acquaintance with the 

 veterans of the pack. The huntsman is always 

 cheery on these occasions, and perhaps has more to 

 say about the mystery of his craft than he has at 

 any other time. Indeed, speaking personally, I 

 think I can say that I have learnt more about 

 hounds and hunting, and foxes and their ways, 

 during these morning rides than at any other time. 

 When a huntsman is hunting, his thoughts are too 

 much occupied with the business of the day to be 

 very communicative, but on these occasions he has 

 his hounds thoroughly broken, and he is, as it 

 were, open to the enjoyment of the pleasures of 

 memory and the pleasures of hope at the same 

 moment. Who, under these circumstances, would 

 not be communicative, especially when he has a 

 kindred spirit to take into his confidence ? So the 

 man who joins the huntsman on these fine summer 

 mornings, thereby gaining his favour in a way 

 those who only turn out in all the panoply of the 

 chase on the first of November are little aware, 

 gets many a wrinkle which will serve him in good 

 stead when leaves are fallen and the country is 

 rideable, if he be a man of observation and memory, 

 which I take leave to think will be the case, or 

 otherwise he would not be there. 



