These directions, like others I have ventured upon, may appear too minute; but it should be remembered that, whereas, carefully followed out, a lady on a steady horse accustomed to gates can open them with safety, any carelessness may result in a bad accident, because the steadiest horse, if "hung up" in a gate, will become furious if he cannot instantly get clear of it. When, therefore, the pupil is well practiced at this sort of work, and has learned to feel her way in cramped places as well as to do her fences at a steady canter, a fair half-speed gallop may be ventured on, the pupil setting her horse going, and pressing him if necessary with the spur, to take his fences in his stride, the spur being used, however, some distance from the fence. The master should ride beside his pupil in this lesson, carefully watching the pace of the horse and the action of the rider. A nice easy line of about a couple of miles should be taken, and the pace maintained throughout. A month of this kind of practice will form a capital introductory step to hunting: and when, in the mild misty mornings of russet-brown October, foxhounds begin to beat up the quarters of the vulpine juveniles, abjuring her "beauty sleep," the lady may with advantage, before the "early village cock proclaims the dawn," don her hunting habiliments, and, under the careful tutelage of her "pilot," trot off to covert and see the "beauties" knock the cubs about. This is by far the best way to begin hunting in reality. There are very few people about at that early hour, and those only who are thorough enthusiasts about the sport; consequently there is more time for the new votary of Diana to get accustomed to the alteration in her horse's form of demeaning himself. For be it known to the uninitiated that even an old horse, that requires kicking and hammering along a road when ridden alone, is quite a different animal and mover the instant he sees the hounds, and will show an amount of vivacity perhaps very little expected by his rider; while a well-bred young one requires a great deal of riding on such occasions. The short bursts sometimes obtained in "cub hunting" are capital practice for a lady; while occasionally a veteran fox, some wily old purloiner of poultry, affords a good twenty or five-and-twenty minutes, even when the fences are blind. I recommend our pilot, however, to keep his charge out of these latter matters, for blind jumping is always bad for a lady. As regards taking a beginner out with harriers, I am against it. It is very well for invalids or corpulent gentlemen who are "doing a constitutional;" but it teaches a young lady nothing of what is really meant by hunting--which, however, she is in a first-rate position to learn with the cubs.