lf 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 others who go well also. Straight riding,
however, is the exception and not the rule. It comes sometimes, and is
the cream of hunting when it does come; but it does not come as often as
the enthusiastic beginner will have taught himself to expect.

But now we will go back to the covert, and into the covert if it be a
large one. I will speak of three kinds of coverts, the gorse, the wood,
and the forest. There are others, but none other so distinct as to
require reference. As regards the gorse covert, which of all is the most
delightful, you, my disciple, need only be careful to keep in the crowd
when it is being drawn. You must understand that if the plantation
which you see before you, and which is the fox's home and homestead,
be surrounded, the owner of it will never leave it. A fox will run back
from a child among a pack of hounds, so much more terrible is to him the
human race even than the canine. The object of all men of course is that
the fox shall go, and from a gorse covert of five acres he must go very
quickly or die among the hounds. It will not be long before he starts if
there be space left for him to creep out, as he will hope, unobserved.
Unobserved he will not be, for the accustomed eye of some whip or
servant will have seen him from a corner. But if stray horsemen roaming
round the gorse give him no room for such hope, he will not go. All
which is so plainly intelligible, that you, my friend, will not fail
to understand why you are required to remain with the crowd. And with
simple gorse coverts there is no strong temptation to move about. They
are drawn quickly