RIDING OVER THE SHIRES 201 



able to judge when hounds have overrun the scent, 

 to see, when they cast themselves, which way they 

 are leaning and to anticipate a turn. We may, too, 

 if we hunt in the same countries year after year learn 

 much about the run of the foxes, all of which know- 

 ledge, as we have seen, is of great value. 



Another condition of success is that we must be 

 willing and able to gallop. For twenty men that 

 will jump a big fence there are only four or five, if so 

 many, who will gallop. Yet in Leicestershire, where 

 scent is strong and the pace is necessarily fast, we 

 must send the horse along, and we must ride faster 

 at our fences than would be quite orthodox in other 

 countries. If you watch a real master of the art, 

 you will see him swinging along, not bucketing indeed 

 but galloping a fair pace and taking the fences at the 

 places he has marked out for himself, without ever 

 pulling his horse out of his stride. 



It has been said that men ride over the Quorn 

 country, but through the Pytchley ; meaning that in 

 the first case, galloping on the top of the ground, they 

 fly big, but clean, fences, while in the other case they 

 dash through hairy obstacles of the nature already 

 described. The distinction is not perhaps so clearly 

 marked as it was when first made, but there is still 

 some truth in it. One thing, indeed, is certain. 

 Through or over, in most cases — not in all, for there 

 are no absolute rules in hunting — you must go fast. 

 You cannot afford to lose time at the fences. True, 

 to ride a horse fast at his fences takes more out of 

 him than to go slowly, but in Leicestershire, if you 

 have only one horse, you must make up your mind 

 to go home early, while if you have a second one, you 

 will take to him when the first is played out. In 

 any case a sticky horse is out of place. To ride in the 



