RIDING OVER THE SHIRES 199 



most often among first-flight men. Who, indeed, 

 see so much and thus are so well able to form con- 

 clusions about the work of hounds as they ? True, 

 there are men in Leicestershire as elsewhere who 

 merely come out for a ride, but they do not " stay " 

 as hunting men. When the mere love of rapid 

 motion and the thrill of galloping over big fences 

 ceases to charm, they will drop back into the crowd 

 or take to golf or motors. But the men who really 

 love hounds and delight in their working will con- 

 tinue to face big fences rather than not see the hunt, 

 long after the pursuit of danger for its own sake has 

 ceased to attract. The former class of men have 

 taken up hunting, as they take up polo, as a fashion- 

 able amusement, but they are not born with the 

 love of the chase and sooner or later they will give 

 it up. 



The most famous riders have undoubtedly ridden 

 to hunt. Take Assheton Smith, for example, the 

 greatest rider to hounds of the last century. Mr. 

 T. A. Smith was strangely indifferent to and careless 

 about his horses. He had no fancies or preferences 

 in the choice of hunters, for with a strong seat, a 

 light hand and an iron will he used the horse as a 

 means to an end. He meant to be in every field 

 with his hounds, and he was so in the majority of 

 cases. He took his sixty or seventy falls in the 

 season as a matter of course, for he cared above all 

 things to see hounds hunting in grass countries, where 

 they can best be seen. If he cared little for horses, 

 he was always thinking about his hounds. This 

 was one reason why he did not enjoy his hunting 

 less in Hampshire when he was obliged by a sense of 

 duty to hunt there. We read, too, how Mr. Osbalde- 

 ston, after he had certainly lost something of the 



