84 PROXIMITY TO THE HOUNDS 



cause, seeing that a good fox-hound cannot be replaced 

 by money. It is marvellous how hounds thread their 

 way through two or three hundred horsemen without 

 accident, and how they escape being ridden over at 

 fences by a lot of madcaps, who seem to think it is the 

 hounds' business to get out of their way, instead of their 

 avoiding them. 



Well, we are now streaming away, and if you feel 

 incompetent to mark out a line for yourself, take the 

 huntsman for your pilot ; go with him, not after him, on 

 the offside from the pack, but as he is a man of great 

 consequence don't ride too near him. This brings me, 

 at once, on debatable ground — ^how near to the hounds 

 any stranger has a right to ride. We hear, very com- 

 monly, of men riding alongside of the leading couples ; 

 now, it is quite clear that no man, save huntsman or 

 Master, has either any cause or any right to be in such 

 near proximity. What would be thought of spectators 

 on a cricket ground rushing in, knocking the ball about, 

 and interfering with the game, or not allowing the players 

 room for their exertions ? The case is parallel in the 

 hunting-field. " He comes too near, who comes to be 

 denied ; " and the rider who presses in so closely upon the 

 hounds as to prevent them swinging to recover the line 

 is interfering most unquestionably and most unwarrant- 

 ably with their game, and at the same time, perhaps, 

 spoiling the sport of the whole field, merely for the empty 

 boast of having lived alongside the leading couples for 

 the first twenty minutes. 



But I go a point beyond this, and maintain that there 

 is no necessity even for a huntsman to be so close to his 

 leading hounds, if he has a pair of good eyes in his head. 

 Although, making every allowance for the excitement of 



