A GOOD RUN 145 



all." But when a man has occupied a good place 

 in a run, when his horse has carried him well, and 

 he has been well forward all the way, he naturally 

 looks upon that run with a favourable eye, and the 

 distance is apt to expand and the time contract 

 with the telling. 



But the fact is that many men who go hunting 

 expect too much. Knowing nothing and caring 

 nothing about hounds and their work, these men 

 miss the niceties of a hunting run, and are conse- 

 quently apt to be censorious of anything which 

 takes place at less than top pace. 



Brilliant runs, as I have pointed out, are the 

 exception. They take place only now and again, 

 and it would be absurd to expect them to take place 

 with much greater frequency than they do. But, 

 given a fox "who leaves the parish " ; given sufficient 

 scent to keep going, even if the pace is slow ; 

 given also a varied country, and one in which it is 

 possible to see hounds work, and here are all 

 the elements which go to make sport. It is, I 

 know, unfashionable to speak of anything that 

 does not approach a steeplechase in pace as a good 

 run, but given the conditions above named, and 

 there is, in my opinion, many a good run and 

 enjoyable run which the thoughtless dub as a rotten 

 one, and deplore their luck for falling in with. 



