332 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



ride a drag, instead of hunting with fox-hounds, I am sure they 

 would be better pleased at the end of the day than with the 

 most perfect piece of hunting and chasing ever seen, and I am 

 certain those who enjoy the work of hounds would be equally 

 pleased at being relieved of their presence. Mind, I by no 

 means include all men who ride hard in this category, for some 

 of the best men over a country are, as they ought to be, the best 

 judges of hounds' work ; but then, as old George Beers said, they 

 know " when not to ride " as well as when to go along, and, as a 

 rule, anticipate a check and pull up soon enough to give hounds 

 room, instead of driving them over the scent, or would do so if 

 they could mthout the fear of being knocked over by one of 

 those gentlemen who think of nothing but their own and their 

 horses' performance. I don't know much about the drag at 

 Oxford in the present day, but formerly it was a great feature, 

 and j ustly termed the best institution for. spoiling a sportsman 

 and making a horseman that could possibly have been invented. 

 "Wliere there is a garrison, also, there is pretty sure to be a drag- 

 hunt established, and a great boon it is to a lot of young men, fond 

 of riding hard, who want a certain gallop without the restraints 

 that the regular chase either does or ought to impose on them. 



It may surprise some who have not searched old works on 

 hunting to find that the drag is by no means a modern invention, 

 but, under the name of a " train-scent," or " catt" was very freely 

 indulged in by our ancestors as early as the days of Gervase 

 Markham ; and, in fact, that matching their horses across 

 country — not in steeplechases (though it amounted to very 

 much the same thing), as we do, but to run so many train- 

 scents — was a very favourite amusement with them, and fast 

 hounds were kept specially to run them. In one part of his 

 work he cautions his readers to be sure of the speed of their 

 hounds before venturing to make a match, lest, having tried 

 their horse with inferior ones, they may be led into error and 

 themselves beaten, when they get into the company of some 

 that are fast, and horses that can go with them. From this I 



