learn to think that a day among the woodlands is a day not badly
spent. At first, when after an hour and a half the fox has been
hunted to his death, or has succeeded in finding some friendly
hole, you will be wondering when the fun is going to begin. Ah
me! how often have I gone through all the fun, have seen the fun
finished, and then have wondered when it was going to begin; and
that, too, in other things besides hunting !

But at present the fun shall not be finished, and we will go back
to the wood from which the fox is just breaking. You, my pupil,
shall have been patient, and your patience shall be rewarded by a
good start. On the present occasion I will give you the exquisite
delight of knowing that you are there, at the spot, as the hounds
come out of the covert. Your success, or want of success,
throughout the run will depend on the way in which you may now
select to go over the three or four first fields. It is not
difficult to keep with hounds if you can get well away with them,
and be with them when they settle to their running. In a long and
fast run your horse may, of course, fail you. That must depend on
his power and his condition. But, presuming your horse to be able
to go, keeping with hounds is not difficult when you are once
free from the thick throng of the riders. And that thick throng
soon makes itself thin. The difficulty is in the start, and you
will almost be offended when I suggest to you what those
difficulties are, and suggest also that such as they are even
they may overcome you. You have to choose your line of riding. Do
not let your horse choose it for you instead of choosing it for
yourself. He will probably make such attempts, and it is not at
all improbable that you should let him have his way. Your horse
will be as anxious to go as you are, but his anxiety will carry