RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS.
"If you want to be near hounds," says an old friend of mine who, for a
life-time, has religiously practised what he preaches, "the method is
simple, and seems only common sense--_keep as close to them as ever you
can_!" but I think, though, with his undaunted nerve, and extraordinary
horsemanship, he seems to find it feasible enough, this plan, for most
people, requires considerable management, and no little modification.
I grant we should never let them slip away from us, and that, in nine
cases out of ten, when defeated by what we choose to call "a bad turn"
it is our own fault. At the same time, there are many occasions on which
a man who keeps his eyes open, and knows how to ride, can save his horse
to some purpose, by travelling inside the pack, and galloping a hundred
yards for their three.
I say _who keeps his eyes open_, because, in order to effect this
economy of speed and distance, it is indispensable to watch their doings
narrowly, and to possess the experience that tells one when they are
_really_ on the line, and when only flinging forward to regain, with the
dash that is a fox-hound's chief characteristic, the scent they have
over-run. Constant observation will alone teach us to distinguish the
hounds that are right; and to turn with them judiciously, is the great
secret of "getting to the end."
We must, therefore, be within convenient distance, and to ensure such
proximity, it is most desirable to get a good start. Let us begin at the
beginning, and consider how this primary essential is to be obtained.
Directly a move is made from the place of meeting, it is well to cut
short all "coffee-house" conversation, even at the risk of neglecting
certain social amenities, and to fix our minds at once on the work in
hand. A good story, though pleasant enough in its way, cannot compare
with a good run, and it is quite possible to lose the one by too earnest
attention to the other.
A few courteous words previously addressed to the huntsman will ensure
his civility during the day; but this is not a happy moment for
imparting to him your opinion on things in general and his own business
in particular. He has many matters to occupy his thoughts, and does not
care to see you in the middle of his favourites on a strange horse. It
is better to keep the second whip between yourself and the hounds,
jogging calmly on, with a pleasant view of their well-filled backs and
handsomely-carried sterns, taking care to pull up, religiously murmuring
the orthodox caution--"Ware horse!" when any one of them requires to
pause for any purpose. You cannot too early impress on the hunt servants
that you are a lover of the animal, most averse to interfering with it
at all times, and especially in the ardour of the chase. If the size and
nature of the covert will admit, you had better go into it with the
hounds, and on this occasion, but no other, I think it is permissible to
make use of the huntsman's pilotage at a respectful distance. Where
there are foxes there is game, where game, riot. A few young hounds must
come out with every pack, and the _rate_ or _cheer_ of your leader will
warn you whether their opening music means a false flourish or a welcome
find. Also where he goes you can safely follow, and need have no
misgivings that the friendly hand-gate for which he is winding down some
tortuous ride will be nailed up.
Besides, though floundering in deep, sloughy woodlands entails
considerable labour on your horse, it is less distressing than that
gallop of a mile or two at speed which endeavours, but usually fails, to
make amends for a bad start; whereas, if you get away on good terms, you
can indulge him with a pull at the first opportunity, and those scenting
days are indeed rare on which hounds run many fields without at least a
hover, if not a check.
Some men take their station outside the covert, down wind, in a
commanding position, so as to hear every turn of the hounds, secure a
front place for the sport, and--head the fox!
But we will suppose all such difficulties overcome; that a little care,
attention, and common sense have enabled you to get away on good terms
with the pack; and that you emerge not a bowshot off, while they stream
across the first field with a dash that brings the mettle to your heart
and the blood to your brain. Do not, therefore, lose your head. It is
the characteristic of good manhood to be physically calm in proportion
to moral excitement. Remember there are two occasions in chase when the
manner of hounds is not to be trusted. On first coming away with their
fox, and immediately before they kill him, the steadiest will lead you
to believe there is a burning scent and that they cannot make a mistake.
Nevertheless, hope for the best, set your horse going, and if, as you
sail over, or crash through, the first fence, you mark the pack driving
eagerly on, drawn to a line at either end by the pace, harden your
heart, and thank your stars. It is all right, you may lay odds, you are
in for a really good thing!
I suppose I need hardly observe that the laws of fox-hunting forbid you
to follow hounds by the very obvious process of galloping in their
track. Nothing makes them so wild, to use the proper term, as "riding on
their line;" and should you be ignorant enough to attempt it, you are
pretty sure to be told _where_ you are driving them, and desired to go
there yourself!
No; you must keep one side or the other, but do not, if you can help
it, let the nature of the obstacles to be encountered bias your choice.
Ride for ground as far as possible when the foothold is good; the fences
will take care of themselves; but let no advantages of sound turf, nor
even open gates, tempt you to stray more than a couple of hundred yards
from the pack. At that distance a bad turn can be remedied, and a good
one gives you leisure to pull back into a trot. Remember, too, that it
is the nature of a fox, and we are now speaking of fox-hunting, to
travel down wind; therefore, as a general rule, keep to leeward of the
hounds. Every bend they make ought to be in your favour; but, on the
other hand should they chance to turn up wind, they will begin to run
very hard, and this is a good reason for never letting them get, so to
speak, out of your reach. I repeat, as a _general rule_, but by no means
without exception. In Leicestershire especially, foxes seem to scorn
this fine old principle, and will make their point with a stiff breeze
blowing in their teeth; but on such occasions they do not usually mean
to go very far, and the gallant veteran, with his white tag, that gives
you the run to be talked of for years, is almost always a wind-sinker
from wold or woodland in an adjoining hunt.
Suppose, however, the day is perfectly calm, and there seems no
sufficient reason to prefer one course to the other, should we go to
right or left? This is a matter in which neither precept nor personal
experience can avail. One man is as sure to do right as the other to do
wrong. There is an intuitive perception, more animal than human, of what
we may call "the line of chase," with which certain sportsmen are gifted
by nature, and which, I believe, would bring them up at critical points
of the finest and longest runs if they came out hunting in a gig. This
faculty, where everything else is equal, causes A to ride better than B,
but is no less difficult to explain than the instinct that guides an
Indian on the prairie or a swallow across the sea. It counsels the lady
in her carriage, or the old coachman piloting her children on their
ponies, it enables the butcher to come up on his hack, the first-flight
man to save his horse, and above all, the huntsman to kill his fox.
The Duke of Beaufort possesses it in an extraordinary degree. When so
crippled by gout, or reduced by suffering as to be unable to keep the
saddle over a fence, he seems, even in strange countries, to see no less
of the sport than in old days, when he could ride into every field with
his hounds. And I do believe that now, in any part of Gloucestershire,
with ten couple of "the badger-pyed" and a horn, he could go out and
kill his fox in a Bath-chair!
Perhaps, however, his may be an extreme case. No man has more
experience, few such a natural aptitude and fondness for the sport. Lord
Worcester, too, like his father, has shown how an educated gentleman,
with abilities equal to all exigencies of a high position that affords
comparatively little leisure for the mere amusements of life, can excel,
in their own profession, men who have been brought up to it from
childhood, whose thoughts and energies, winter and summer, morning,
noon, and night, are concentrated on the business of the chase.
This knack of getting to hounds then--should we consider genius or
talent too strong terms to use for proficiency in field sports--while a
most valuable quality to everybody who comes out hunting, is no less
rare than precious. If we have it we are to be congratulated and our
horses still more, but if, like the generality of men, we have it _not_,
let us consider how far common sense and close attention will supply the
want of a natural gift.
It was said of an old friend of mine, the keenest of the keen, that he
always rode as if he had never seen a run before, and should never see a
run again! This, I believe, is something of the feeling with which we
ought to be possessed, impelling us to take every legitimate advantage
and to throw no possible chance away. It cannot be too often repeated
that judicious choice of ground is the very first essential for success.
Therefore the hunting-field has always been considered so good a school
for cavalry officers. There seems no limit to the endurance of a horse
in travelling over a hard and tolerably level surface, even under heavy
weight, but we all know the fatal effect of a very few yards in a
steam-ploughed field, when the gallant animal sinks to its hocks every
stride. Keep an eye forward then, and shape your course where the
foothold is smooth and sound. In a hilly country choose the sides of the
slopes, above, rather than below, the pack, for, if they turn away from
you, it is harder work to gallop up, than down. In the latter case, and
for this little hint I am indebted to Lord Wilton, do not increase your
speed so as to gain in distance, rather preserve the same regular pace,
so as to save in wind. Descending an incline at an easy canter, and held
well together, your horse is resting almost as if he were standing
still. It is quite time enough when near the bottom to put on a spurt
that will shoot him up the opposite rise.
On the grass, if you _must_ cross ridge-and-furrow, take it a-slant,
your horse will pitch less on his shoulders, and move with greater ease,
while if they lie the right way, by keeping him on the crest, rather
than in the trough of those long parallel rollers, you will ensure firm
ground for his gallop, and a sounder, as well as higher take-off for the
leap, when he comes to his fence.
I need hardly remind you that in all swampy places, rushes may be
trusted implicitly, and experienced hunters seem as well aware of the
fact as their riders. Vegetable growth, indeed, of any kind has a
tendency to suck moisture into its fibres, and consequently to drain,
more or less, the surface in its immediate vicinity. The deep rides of a
woodland are least treacherous at their edges, and the brink of a brook
is most reliable close to some pollard or alder bush, particularly on
the upper side, as Mr. Bromley Davenport knew better than most people,
when he wrote his thrilling lines:--
"Then steady, my young one! the place I've selected
Above the dwarf willow, is sound, I'll be bail;
With your muscular quarters beneath you collected,
Prepare for a rush like the limited mail!"
But we cannot always be on the grass, nor, happily are any of us
obliged, often in a life time, to ride at the Whissendine!
In ploughed land, choose a wet furrow, for the simple reason that water
would not stand in it unless the bottom were hard, but if you cannot
find one, nor a foot-path, nor a cart-track trampled down into a certain
consistency, remember the fable of the hare and the tortoise, pull your
horse back into a trot, and never fear but that you will be able to make
up your leeway when you arrive at better ground. It is fortunate that
the fences are usually less formidable here than in the pastures, and
will admit of creeping into, and otherwise negotiating, with less
expenditure of power, so you may travel pretty safely, and turn at
pleasure, shorter than the hounds.
There _are_ plough countries, notably in Gloucestershire and Wilts,
that ride light. To them the above remarks in no way apply. Inclosed
with stone walls, if there is anything like a scent, hounds carry such a
head, and run so hard over these districts, that you must simply go as
fast as your horse's pace, and as straight as his courage admits, but if
you have the Duke of Beaufort's dog-pack in front of you, do not be
surprised to find, with their extraordinary dash and enormous stride,
that even on the pick of your stable, ere you can jump into one field
they are half-way across the next.
In hunting, as in everything else, compensation seems the rule of daily
life, and the very brilliancy of the pace affords its own cure. Either
hounds run into their fox, or, should he find room to turn, flash over
the scent, and bring themselves to a check. You will not then regret
having made play while you could, and although no good sportsman, and,
indeed, no kind-hearted man, would overtax the powers of the most
generous animal in creation, still we must remember that we came out for
the purpose of seeing the fun, and unless we can keep near the hounds
while they run we shall lose many beautiful instances of their sagacity
when brought to their noses, and obliged to hunt.
There is no greater treat to a lover of the chase than to watch a pack
of high-bred fox-hounds that have been running hard on pasture, brought
suddenly to a check on the dusty sun-dried fallows. After dashing and
snatching in vain for a furlong or so, they will literally quarter their
ground like pointers, till they recover the line, every yard of which
they make good, with noses down and sterns working as if from the
concentrated energy of all their faculties, till suspicion becomes
certainty, and they lay themselves out once more, in the uncontrolled
ecstasy of pursuit.
Now if you are a mile behind, you miss all these interesting incidents,
and lose, as does your disappointed hunter, more than half the amusement
you both came out to enjoy. The latter too, works twice as hard when
held back in the rear, as when ridden freely and fearlessly in front.
The energy expended in fighting with his rider would itself suffice to
gallop many a furlong and leap many a fence, while the moral effect of
disappointment is most disheartening to a creature of such a
highly-strung nervous organisation. Look at the work done by a
huntsman's horse before the very commencement of some fine run, the
triumphant conclusion of which depends so much on his freshness at the
finish, and yet how rarely does he succumb to the labour of love
imposed; but then he usually leaves the covert in close proximity to his
friends the hounds, every minute of his toil is cheered by their
companionship, and, having no leeway to make up he need not be overpaced
when they are running their hardest, while he finds a moment's leisure
to recover himself when they are hunting their closest and best. In
those long and severe chases, to which, unhappily, two or three horses
may sometimes be sacrificed, the "first flight" are not usually
sufferers. Death from exhaustion is more likely to be inflicted cruelly,
though unwittingly on his faithful friend and comrade, by the
injudicious and hesitating rider, who has neither decision to seize a
commanding position in front, nor self-denial to be satisfied with an
unassuming retirement in rear. His valour and discretion are improperly
mixed, like bad punch, and fatal is the result. A timely pull means
simply the difference between breathlessness and exhaustion, but this
opportune relief is only available for him who knows exactly how far
they brought it, and where the hounds flashed beyond the line of their
fox at a check.
I remember in my youth, alas! long ago, "the old sportsman"--a
character for whom, I fear, we entertained in my day less veneration
than we professed--amongst many inestimable precepts was fond of
propounding the following:--
"Young gentleman, nurse your hunter carefully at the beginning of a run,
and when the others are tired he will enable you to see the end."
[Illustration: Page 193.]
Now with all due deference to the old sportsman, I take leave to differ
with him _in toto_. By nursing one's horse, I conclude he meant riding
him at less than half-speed during that critical ten minutes when hounds
run their very hardest and straightest. If we follow this cautious
advice, who is to solve the important question, "Which way are they
gone?" when we canter anxiously up to a sign-post where four roads meet,
with a fresh and eager horse indeed, but not the wildest notion towards
which point of the compass we should direct his energies? We can but
stop to listen, take counsel of a countryman who unwittingly puts us
wrong, ride to points, speculate on chances, and make up our minds never
to be really on terms with them again!
No, I think on the contrary, the best and most experienced riders adopt
a very different system. On the earliest intimation that hounds are
"away," they may be observed getting after them with all the speed they
can make. Who ever saw Mr. Portman, for instance, trotting across the
first field when his bitches were well out of covert settling on the
line of their fox?--and I only mention his name because it occurs to me
at the moment, and because, notwithstanding the formidable hills of his
wild country and the pace of his flying pack, he is always present at
the finish, to render them assistance if required, as it often must be,
with a sinking fox.
"The first blow is half the battle" in many nobler struggles than a
street-brawl with a cad, and the very speed at which you send your horse
along for a few furlongs, if the ground is at all favourable, enables
you to give him a pull at the earliest opportunity, without fear lest
the whole distant panorama of the hunt should fade into space while you
are considering what to do next.
Not that I mean you to over-mark, or push him for a single stride,
beyond the collected pace at which he travels with ease and comfort to
himself; for remember he is as much your partner as the fairest young
lady ever trusted to your guidance in a ball-room: but I _do_ mean that
you should make as much haste as is compatible with your mutual
enjoyment, and, reflecting on the capricious nature of scent, take the
chance of its failure, to afford you a moment's breathing-time when most
required.
At all periods of a fox-chase, be careful to _anticipate a check_.
Never with more foresight than when flying along in the ecstasy of a
quick thing, on a brilliant hunter. Keep an eye forward, and scan with
close attention every moving object in front. There you observe a flock
of sheep getting into line like cavalry for a charge--that is where the
fox has gone. Or perhaps a man is ploughing half-a-mile further on; in
all probability this object will have headed him, and on the discretion
with which you ride at these critical moments may depend the performance
of the pack, the difference between "a beautiful turn" and "an unlucky
check." The very rush of your gallop alongside them will tempt
high-mettled hounds into the indiscretion of over-running their scent.
Whereas, if you take a pull at your horse, and give them plenty of room,
they will swing to the line, and wheel like a flock of pigeons on the
wing.
Always ride, then, to _command_ hounds if you can, but never be tempted,
when in this proud position, to press them, and to spoil your own sport,
with that of every one else.
If so fortunate as to view him, and near enough to distinguish that it
is the hunted fox, think twice before you holloa. More time will be lost
than gained by getting their heads up, if the hounds are still on the
line, and even when at fault, it is questionable whether they do not
derive less assistance than excitement from the human voice. Much
depends on circumstances, much on the nature of the pack. I will not say
you are never to open your mouth, but I think that if the inmates of our
deaf and dumb asylums kept hounds, these would show sport above the
average, and would seldom go home without blood. Noise is by no means a
necessary concomitant of the chase, and a hat held up, or a quiet
whisper to the huntsman, is of more help to him than the loudest and
clearest view-holloa that ever wakened the dead "from the lungs of John
Peel in the morning."
We have hitherto supposed that you are riding a good horse, in a good
place, and have been so fortunate as to meet with none of those reverses
that are nevertheless to be expected on occasion, particularly when
hounds run hard and the ground is deep. The best of hunters may fall,
the boldest of riders be defeated by an impracticable fence. Hills,
bogs, a precipitous ravine, or even an unlucky turn in a wood may place
you at a mile's disadvantage, almost before you have realised your
mistake, and you long for the wings of an eagle, while cursing the
impossibility of taking back so much as a single minute from the past.
It seems so easy to ride a run when it is over!
But do not therefore despair. Pull yourself well together, no less than
your horse. Keep steadily on at a regulated pace, watching the movements
of those who are with the hounds, and ride inside them, every bend. No
fox goes perfectly straight--he must turn sooner or later--and when the
happy moment arrives be ready to back your luck, and _pounce_! But here,
again, I would have your valour tempered with discretion. If your horse
does not see the hounds, be careful how you ride him at such large
places as he would face freely enough in the excitement of their
company. Not one hunter in fifty is really fond of jumping, and we
hardly give them sufficient credit for the good-humour with which they
accept it as a necessity for enjoyment of the sport. Avoid water
especially, unless you have reason to believe the bottom is good, and
you can go in and out. Even under such favourable conditions, look well
to your egress. There is never much difficulty about the entrance, and
do not forget that the middle is often the shallowest, and always the
soundest part of a brook. When tempted therefore to take a horse, that
you know is a bad water-jumper, at this serious obstacle; you are most
likely to succeed, if you only ask him to jump half-way. Should he drop
his hind-legs under the farther bank, he will probably not obtain
foothold to extricate himself, particularly with your weight on his
back.
We are all panic-stricken, and with reason, at the idea of being
submerged, but we might wade through many more brooks than we usually
suppose. I can remember seeing the Rowsham, generally believed to be
bottomless, forded in perfect safety by half-a-dozen of the finest and
heaviest bullocks the Vale of Aylesbury ever fattened into beef. This,
too, close to a hunting-bridge, put there by Baron Rothschild because of
the depth and treacherous nature of the stream!
A hard road, however, though to be avoided religiously when enjoying a
good place with hounds, is an invaluable ally on these occasions of
discomfiture and vexation, if it leads in the same direction as the line
of chase. On its firm, unyielding surface your horse is regaining his
wind with every stride. Should a turnpike-gate bar your progress, chuck
the honest fellow a shilling who swings it back and never mind the
change. We hunt on sufferance; for our own sakes we cannot make the
amusement too popular with the lower classes. The same argument holds
good as to feeing a countryman who assists you in any way when you have
a red coat on your back. Reward him with an open hand. He will go to the
public-house and drink "fox-hunting" amongst his friends. It is
impossible to say how many innocent cubs are preserved by such judicious
liberality to die what Charles Payne calls "a natural death."
And now your quiet perseverance meets its reward. You regain your place
with the hounds and are surprised to find how easily and temperately
your horse, not yet exhausted, covers large flying fences in his stride.
A half-beaten hunter, as I have already observed, will "lob over" high
and wide places if they can be done in a single effort, although
instinct causes him to "cut them very fine," and forbids unnecessary
exertion; but it is "the beginning of the end," and you must not presume
on his game, enduring qualities too long.
The object of your pursuit, however, is also mortal. By the time you
have tired an honest horse in good condition the fox is driven to his
last resources, and even the hounds are less full of fire than when they
brought him away from the covert. I am supposing, of course, that they
have not changed during the run. You may now save many a furlong by
bringing your common sense into play. What would you do if you were a
beaten fox, and where would you go? Certainly not across the middle of
those large pastures where you could be seen by the whole troop of your
enemies without a chance of shelter or repose. No; you would rather lie
down in this deep, overgrown ditch, sneak along the back of that strong,
thick bullfinch, turn short in the high, double hedgerow, and so hiding
yourself from the spiteful crows that would point you out to the
huntsman, try to baffle alike his experienced intelligence and the
natural sagacity of his hounds. Such are but the simplest of the wiles
practised by this most cunning beast of chase. While observing them, you
need no further distress the favourite who has carried you so well than
is necessary to render the assistance required for finishing
satisfactorily with blood; and here your eyes and ears will be far more
useful than the speed and stamina of your horse.
Who-whoop! His labours are now over for the day. Do not keep him
standing half-an-hour in the cold, while you smoke a cigar and enlarge
to sympathising ears on his doings, and yours, and theirs, and those of
everybody concerned. Rather jog gently off as soon as a few compliments
and congratulations have been exchanged, and keep him moving at the rate
of about six miles an hour, so that his muscles may not begin to stiffen
after his violent exertions, till you have got him home. Jump off his
honest back, to walk up and down the hills with him as they come. He
well deserves this courtesy at your hands. If you ever go out shooting
you cannot have forgotten the relief it is to put down your gun for a
minute or two. And even from a selfish point of view, there is good
reason for this forbearance in the ease your own frame experiences with
the change of attitude and exercise. If you can get him a mouthful of
gruel, it will recruit his exhausted vitality, as a basin of soup puts
life into a fainting man; but do not tarry more than five or six minutes
for your own luncheon, while he is sucking it in, and the more tired he
seems, remember, the sooner you ought to get him home.
If he fails altogether, does not attempt to trot, and wavers from side
to side under your weight, put him into the first available shelter, and
make up your mind, however mean the quarters, it is better for him to
stay there all night than in his exhausted condition to be forced back
to his own stable. With thorough ventilation and plenty of coverings,
old sacks, blankets, whatever you can lay hands on, he will take no
harm. Indeed, if you can keep up his circulation there is no better
restorative than the pure cold air that in a cow-shed, or out-house,
finds free admission, to fill his lungs.
You will lose your dinner perhaps. What matter? You may even have to
sleep out in "the worst inn's worst room," unfed, unwashed, and without
a change of clothes. It is no such penance after all, and surely your
first duty is to the gallant generous animal that would never fail _you_
at your need, but would gallop till his heart broke, for your mere
amusement and caprice.
Of all our relations with the dumb creation, there is none in which man
has so entirely the best of it as the one-sided partnership that exists
between the horse and his rider.