RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



watching the hounds while they thread a thousand 

 intricacies of rock, heather, and scattered copse- 

 wood, so as to meet them when they emerge, 

 which they will surely do on the upper level, for 

 it is the nature of their quarry to rise the hill 

 a-slant, and seek safety, when pressed, in its speed 

 across the flat. 



A deer descends these declivities one after 

 another as they come, but it is for the refreshment 

 of a bath in their waters below, and instinct 

 prompts it to return without delay to higher 

 ground when thus invigorated. Only if com- 

 pletely beaten and exhausted, does it become so 

 confused as to attempt scaling a rise in a direct 

 line. The run is over then, and you may turn 

 your horse's head to the wind, for in a furlong or 

 two the game will falter and come down again 

 amongst its pursuers to stand at ba}^ 



Coast your combes, therefore, judiciously, and 

 spare your horse ; so shall you cross the heather 

 in thorough enjoyment of the chase till it leads 

 you perhaps to the grassy swamps of Exmoor, 

 the most plausible line in the world, over which 

 hounds run their hardest — and now look out ! 



If Exmoor were in Leicestershire, it would be 

 called a bog, and cursed accordingly, but every 

 country has its own peculiarities, and a North 

 Devon sportsman more especially, on a horse 

 whose dam, or even grandam, was bred on the 



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