DISCRETION 



slow they seem to travel ! and yet, when you 

 nick in presently, heaving flanks, red faces, and 

 excited voices will tell a very different tale. 



Trotting soberly along, then, with ears and 

 eyes wide open, carefully keeping down wind, not 

 only because the hounds are sure to bend in that 

 direction, but also that you can thus hear before 

 you see them, and take measures accordingly, 

 you will have ridden very few miles before you 

 are gladdened by the cheerful music of the pack, 

 or more probably a twang from the horn. The 

 scent is rarely so good as to admit of hounds 

 running for thirty or forty minutes without a 

 check ; indeed, on most days they are likely to be 

 at fault more than once during the lapse of half 

 an hour, when the huntsman's science will be 

 required to cast them, and, in some cases, to assist 

 them in losing their fox. Now is your time to 

 press on with the still undefeated hack. If you 

 are wise, you will not leave the lanes to which I 

 give you the credit of having stuck religiously 

 from the start. At least, do not think of entering 

 a field unless the track of an obvious bridle-road 

 leads safely into the next. 



A man who never jumps at all can by no 

 possibility be "pounded," whereas the easiest and 

 safest of gaps into an enclosure may mean a 

 bullfinch with two ditches at the other end. 



Perhaps you will find yourself ahead of everyone 



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