2i8 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



said, a man must ride faster over the fences on the 

 grass than elsewhere, but should never rush, or let 

 his horse out of his hand, if he can help it. For 

 there are moments in a crowd racing for a start 

 when we must take our chance and jump where and 

 how we can if we have a high-couraged horse a little 

 out of hand with excitement, for we know there is 

 the probability of being jumped on if we fall. But 

 that is only for a moment in the first mad race for 

 a start. For the rest, courage, calmness and fine 

 hands, with an eye for country, will take their fortu- 

 nate possessors to the front — if their horses are good 

 enough — now as they did eighty years ago. 



There is an admirable description of such a ride 

 written by a lady well known at Melton, but whose 

 anonymity, though it is an open secret, we must 

 respect. Speaking of her horse she says : — 



" I had not gone ten strides before I knew that I 

 could not stop him. My host on receiving the in- 

 formation said, ' What does it matter ? Hounds 

 are running. You surely don't want to stop him.' 

 ' Oh, no, but I cannot guide him.' ' That doesn't 

 matter, they are running straight,' So, stimulated 

 by this obvious common-sense, I went on in the 

 delirium of the chase till I had jumped so close to an 

 innocent man that my habit-skirt carried off his spur, 

 and, in avoiding a collision at a ford, I jumped the 

 widest brook I have ever seen jumped, and after that 

 I got a pull at him." Again in Whyte-Melville's 

 " Riding Recollections " who does not remember where 

 young Rapid and his three friends race for the one 

 practicable spot in a big fence ? But all the rush 

 is over in five or ten minutes, and after that there 

 is plenty of room. 



There is, however, another difficult moment : if 



