RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 



favourable, enables you to give him a pull at the 

 earliest opportunity, without fear lest the whole 

 distant panorama of the hunt should fade into 

 space while you are considering what to do next. 



Not that I mean you to over-mark, or push him 

 for a single stride, beyond the collected pace at 

 which he travels with ease and comfort to himself ; 

 for remember he is as much your partner as the 

 fairest young lady ever trusted to your guidance 

 in a ballroom : but I do mean that you should 

 make as much haste as is compatible with your 

 mutual enjoyment, and, reflecting on the capricious 

 nature of scent, take the chance of its failure, to 

 afford you a moment's breathing-time when most 

 required. 



At all periods of a fox-chase, be careful to 

 anticipate a check. Never with more foresight 

 than when flying along in the ecstasy of a quick 

 thing, on a brilliant hunter. Keep an eye forward, 

 and scan with close attention every moving object 

 in front. There you observe a flock of sheep 

 getting into line like cavalry for a charge — that 

 is where the fox has gone. Or perhaps a man 

 is ploughing half a mile farther on ; in all 

 probability this object will have headed him, 

 and on the discretion with which you ride at 

 these critical moments may depend the per- 

 formance of the pack, the difference between "a 

 beautiful turn" and "an unlucky check." The 



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