they could hunt it, and will destroy the scent before the hounds
are on it, following, in their ignorance, the footsteps of the
cunning sinner. Let me beg my young friend not to be found among
this odious crowd of marplots. His business is to ride to hounds;
and let him do so from the beginning of the run, persevering
through it all, taking no mean advantages, and allowing himself
to be betrayed into as few mistakes as possible; but let him not
begin before the beginning. If he could know all that is inside
the breast of that mean man who commenced the scurry, the cunning
man who desires to steal a march, my young friend would not wish
to emulate him. With nine-tenths of the men who flutter away
after this ill fashion there is no design of their own in their
so riding. They simply wish to get away, and in their impatience
forget the little fact that a pack of hounds is necessary for the
hunting of a fox.

I have found myself compelled to begin with this preliminary
caution, as all riding to hounds hangs on the fact in question.
Men cannot ride to hounds if the hounds be not there. They may
ride one after another, and that, indeed, suffices for many a
keen sportsman; but I am now addressing the youth who is
ambitious of riding to hounds. But though I have thus begun,
striking first at the very root of the matter, I must go back
with my pupil into the covert before I carry him on through the
run. In riding to hounds there is much to do before the straight
work commences. Indeed, the straight work is, for the man, the
easiest work, or the work, I should say, which may be done with
the least previous knowledge. Then the horse, with his qualities,
comes into play; and if he be up to his business in skill,
condition, and bottom, a man may go well by simply keeping with