HOUNDS AND HORSES 265 



wh<5 always pay attention to what hounds are doing, 

 and know the country and understand the sport 

 thoroughly. Without these qualifications a man 

 cannot ride successfully to staghounds. 



Sometimes one hears, generally in sporting novels, 

 of an unknown sportsman visiting a Strange Hunt 

 and ' cutting down ' all the best men belonging to 

 it, in the run of the season. Perhaps this happens 

 occasionally in a straightforward country, but it is 

 doubtful if it occurs in those where the best horseman 

 in the world may get into hopeless difficulties for 

 want of local knowledge, which none but a native can 

 possess. 



And this is especially true of Exmoor. There are 

 few coombes that you cannot cross in many places, 

 but there are still fewer which it is wise to cross 

 except at certain points. Moreover, though you may 

 ride many miles over the moor without encountering 

 a fence, yet you are bound to come to one sooner or 

 later, and as they are generally unjumpable, with gates 

 a long distance apart, it is best for the stranger to 

 follow someone who knows his way about. 



Probably a horse could go wherever a stag can 

 (except over fences), but the scent may easily lie a 

 few yards right or left of where the deer has passed, 

 and in wet ground those few yards may make all the 



