RIDING TO HOUNDS. 79 



implied in the phrase riding to hounds, and has 

 the time and the means for gratifying his fancy. 

 To see hounds work is one of his dehghts. It 

 may not be strictly true, that wherever hounds 

 can go mounted men can follow ; for a few feet 

 of water more or less makes little difference to 

 a dog that swims, while it may make all the 

 difference to a horse that jumps, and there are 

 sometimes ways through a fence for hounds 

 which are not practicable for riders. 



But these are exceptions in ordinary countries, 

 and none such are in the way of the man whom 

 we now suppose to be riding to hounds. He 

 knows his horse, he knows himself, and is so 

 thoroughly at home that nothing diverts his 

 attention from the leading hounds as he gallops 

 easily along by the side of, but not too near, the 

 body of the pack. Fences to him are like plums 

 in a child's cake ; the cake is all good, but the 

 pluxns are best. He collects his horse and sends 

 him steadily at timber, jumping sideways per- 

 haps, for reasons well understood by himself ; he 

 pulls the high-couraged animal together and 

 st^ads him with a rush at the fourteen-feet brook, 

 hands him daintily over a stile, and at the 

 ordinary hedge and ditch leaves his head fairly 

 loose and trusts to his intelligence to do what 

 is best for himself and his rider. 



