EIDING TO HOUNDS. 



" KiDiNG to hounds" may mean anything or 

 nothing — that is to say, the rider may surmount 

 and overcome dangers which he woukl not meet 

 in an ordinary steeplechase, or he may jog along 

 as calmly and quietly as he would do in Rotten 

 Row. All depends upon how the man means to 

 ride ; and very likely he does not mean to 

 ride at all, as horsemen understand the phrase. 

 To go out hunting is one thing ; to risk collar 

 bones and ribs, to say nothing of more uncom- 

 fortable fractures, by jumping ugly places is quite 

 another. Let it be supposed that the fox has 

 been viewed away, and that hounds are running ; 

 what in reality happens ? It is not the case, as 

 fond mothers suppose, that the whole field race 

 with one another for the privilege of first jumping 

 a five-barred gate, a flowing river, or anything 

 short of a haystack that may be before them. 



The huntsman gets to his hounds, the master 

 is in his place, and the whip, whose shrill scream 



