g from cover to cover, keep in the same field as the hounds,
unless you know the country--then you can't be left behind without a
struggle. To keep in the same field as the hounds when they are running,
is more than any man can undertake to do. Make your commencement in an
easy country, and defer trying the pasture counties until you are sure
of yourself and your horse.

"If you should have a cold-scenting day, and any first-rate steeplechase
rider be in the field, breaking in a young one, watch him; you may learn
more from seeing what he does, than from hours of advice, or pages of
reading.

"Above all, hold your tongue until you have learnt your lesson; and talk
neither of your triumphs nor your failures. Any fool can boast; and
though to ride boldly and with judgment is very pleasant, there is
nothing for a gentleman to be specially proud of, considering that two
hundred huntsmen, or whips, do it better than most gentlemen every
hunting day in the season."

When you meet the pack with a strange horse, don't go near it until sure
that he will not kick at hounds, as some ill-educated horses will do.

Before the hounds begin to draw, you may get some useful information as
to a strange country from a talkative farmer.

When hounds are drawing a large cover, and when you cannot see them,
keep down wind, so as to hear the huntsman, who, in large woodlands,
must keep on cheering his hounds. When a fox breaks cover near you, or
you think he does, don't be in a hurry to give the "Tally-a-e-o!" for,
in the first place, if you are not experienced and quick-eyed, it may
not be a fox at all, but a dog, or a hare. The mistake is common to
people who are always in a hurry, and equally annoying to the huntsman
and the blunderer; and, in the next place, if you halloo too soon, ten
to one the fox heads back into cover. When he is well away through the
hedge of a good-sized field, halloo, at the same time raising your cap,
"Tally-o aw-ay-o-o!" giving each syllable very slowly, and with your
mouth well open; for this is the way to be heard a long distance. Do
this once or twice, and then be quiet for a short spell, and be ready to
tell the huntsman, when he comes up, in a few sentences, exactly which
way the fox is gone. If the fox makes a short bolt, and returns, it is
"Tally-o _back_!" with the "_back_" loud and clear. If the fox crosses
the side of a wood when the hounds are at check, the cry should be
"Tally-o over!"

_Foxes.