PLACE WITH THE HOUNDS 89 



that ninety men out of a hundred talk and think of 

 everything else save the business in hand, their attention 

 being too much engrossed with their horses and friends 

 to watch the proceedings of the pack. Out of a field 

 of three hundred horsemen who go away with the hounds 

 before them, at the end of fifty minutes fifty men are 

 scarcely placed. But what becomes of the other two 

 hundred and fifty ? Half of them have not the head, 

 and the other half have not the heart, to ride to hounds. 

 There is also great tact in going properly at fences, in 

 which so many are deficient, and for the want of which 

 such multifarious difficulties and drawbacks occur in a 

 sharp run of forty or forty-five minutes. Many men 

 ride at every obstacle in the same manner, thereby 

 acquiring many tumbles ; but the safest rule is to put 

 your horse slowly (pulling him into a trot before taking 

 off) at high fences, such as gates, walls, wattles, or rails, 

 where height is to be surmounted ; and briskly at brooks 

 and other wide leaps where breadth only is to be covered. 

 A wide bank, with double ditches, should be approached 

 cautiously, and done by two efforts ; but an upright 

 quickset, without any bank, and a ditch on both sides, 

 must be covered by one flight, or at a single bound, for 

 which greater impetus is required. 



There is another point to be attended to also — the 

 selection of the firmest ground to ride on. If men choose 

 to follow a leader, they are bound, in common courtesy, 

 to allow him both time and space to get clear over to 

 the other side of the fence, before putting their horses 

 at it or him. There is In every hunt a class of craners 

 and Junkers, who will pertinaciously follow on through 

 gaps, instead of taking a line of their own, although the 

 delays attendant on this proceeding prevent their seeing 



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