ON THE NATIONAL UTILITY OF HUNTING. 11 



diately for one of them. To hesitate is to lose his place, and 

 he who vacillates between, or from want of observation fails to 

 notice them, soon finds himself in the rear, and with no chance 

 of regaining his lost ground until a check occurs. Whether 

 the man who determines on his line at once is fortunate in the 

 selection, dej^ends, as I said before, on his possessing the 

 quality of at once and instantaneously grasping the circum- 

 stances of the situation. If he can do this, he will have deter- 

 mined in his own mind the line the animal he is in pursuit of 

 has most likely taken (more probably than not rightly), and at 

 the same time he will have noticed everything within his ken 

 which would be likely to turn him from that line, and on these 

 conclusions he will have acted. But it is done, as it were, 

 instantly ; for the chase allows no time for deliberate conside- 

 ration. Many men have this qualification in an eminent 

 degree; others, although equally bold and courageous horse- 

 men, can never acquire it, and in riding a chase if they attempt 

 to "take a line of their own" — to use a technical term — are 

 very soon hopelessly lost. At the same time all who hunt 

 endeavour to acquire this art, if I may so call it, and a most 

 useful training it is for any situation of danger or difficulty in 

 which they may be placed. Another quality that is called 

 forth is courage, for no man, unless he is possessed of what is 

 called pluck, can ride over a strong country. The danger, no 

 doubt, is much less than may be imagined, as out of the large 

 fields of horsemen who every day during the season meet 

 hounds, the percentage of serious accidents is very small, and 

 of deaths still less. At the same time they do occur, and every 

 man who hunts is liable to them. The slightest mistake in 

 taking off" at stiff" timber may find him thrown on the other 

 side, and his horse coming on him with fearful violence. 

 A strong binder in a fence may be the means of placing him 

 under his horse in the ditch, there to remain until he is dug 

 out, or a short jump at a brook cause him to be precipitated 

 into water of unknown depth. Yet hundreds of men every 



