RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



and straightest. If we follow this cautious advice, 

 who is to solve the important question, " Which 

 way are they gone ? " when we canter anxiously 

 up to a sign-post where four roads meet, with a 

 fresh and eager horse indeed, but not the wildest 

 notion towards which point of the compass we 

 should direct his energies ? We can but stop to 

 listen, take counsel of a countryman who un- 

 wittingly puts us wrong, ride to points, speculate 

 on chances, and make up our minds never to be 

 really on terms with them again ! 



No, I think on the contrary, the best and most 

 experienced riders adopt a very different system. 

 On the earliest intimation that hounds are "away," 

 they may be observed getting after them with all 

 the speed they can make. Who ever saw Mr. 

 Portman, for instance, trotting across the first 

 field when his bitches were well out of covert 

 settling on the line of their fox ? — and I only 

 mention his name because it occurs to me at 

 the moment, and because, notwithstanding the 

 formidable hills of his wild country and the pace 

 of his fiying pack, he is always present at the 

 finish, to render them assistance if required, as 

 it often must be, with a sinking fox. 



" The first blow is half the battle " in many 

 nobler struggles than a street brawl with a cad, 

 and the very speed at which you send your horse 

 alongr for a few furlonQrs, if the Qrround is at all 



184 



