THE FOREST 167 



really thick heather. Thus, when hounds really run, and 

 the man really rides to them wherever they go — following 

 the rides on such occasion is a mere hope-for-the-best affair 

 — a really fast forest run is in some ways a greater test of 

 horsemanship than crossing the obvious ' enclosures of a 

 fairly fenced hunting country ; I think Comins, the Queen's 

 Huntsman — a most dashing forest rider — will agree with me. 

 In the latter case on a free and experienced horse the rider 

 need only be a passenger, but in the forest the man must 

 ride his horse, he cannot be merely carried. 



In the forest, as anywhere else, it is an advantage to be 

 on a fast horse ; but, whatever you are on, you have often 

 got to ride him fast, under circumstances peculiarly un- 

 favourable to fast riding, and which are often irritating to 

 the temperament of a high-couraged and sensitive animal. 



I remember hunting for a few days with Lord Lonsdale 

 some years ago when he hunted the Woodland Pytchley. 

 One afternoon, latish on in the season, we literally rode into 

 an old dog-fox in Boughton woods. He jumped up between 

 us. The hounds got away right on the back of the fox. 

 We both started on the back of hounds. I was riding a 

 handy, quick horse by Berserker, and those stately wood- 

 lands have been well administered and thinned. But Lord 

 Lonsdale lost me in three minutes — not so much because 

 he was riding a faster horse, although I dare say he was, but 

 because of his superior horsemanship and his knowledge 

 of manege riding, which, to my mind, especially distinguishes 

 him from other celebrated riders to hounds. It is vour lees, 

 and not your hands, which take a horse through trees. 

 Since then circumstances have given me plenty of oppor- 

 tunities of learning to ride quickly through woodlands ; but 

 I am no good at it. Perhaps on that account I may be 

 overrating its difficulty. 



But whatever the forest may be for the rider, it is a 



