A WEEK AT MELTON 59 



few runs that last over ten or fifteen minutes do 

 hounds go equally fast all the time. Directly you 

 can command their pace then is the time to save the 

 horse. It may be only a burst, but if it should last 

 for forty minutes at a fair pace, even though you have 

 the best blood in England under the saddle, yet you 

 will want all your horse's courage and strength to see 

 the end. 



To the man who really can and will ride to hounds 

 a knowledge of the country is a positive snare. He 

 may be a judge of pace, indeed, and must have an 

 eye for a country, but he should see the hounds only 

 and direct his course by them. To ride cunning, to 

 ride to points, is fatal in grass countries. There is 

 not time, so quickly do hounds rush forward even 

 with a comparatively moderate scent. Then scent 

 improves sometimes very suddenly, and hounds are 

 away in a moment. True, if you are thrown out, as 

 everybody must be sometimes, to know the country 

 is an advantage, but it is not worth while to know it 

 too well, for, after all, a pilot can generally be found. 

 In this, however, I am speaking only to the hard- 

 riding man. I have often occasion to seek for in- 

 formation from people about runs, and I find that the 

 straightest and best riders are often the worst his- 

 torians. Even among hunting correspondents some 

 of the most accurate narrators of the course of a run 

 are those who do not ride, but go afoot or on a bicycle. 

 The fact is that the man who rides a fox-chase is like 

 a man in a battle in that he only sees a small part of 

 the fray. 



But this has led me away from the Quorn Friday 

 country, which on the whole is one of the best dis- 

 tricts in England. That the sport is good the very 

 crowds show. Fashion indeed may bring some, but 



