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THE SPORT OF KINGS

By the same Author

IN THE NORTH

COUNTREE

Annals and Anecdotes of Horse,
Hound, and Herd

By W. Scarth Dixon.

Demy S-vo, 10s. 6d.

Yorkshire Post. — " The romance
of the Turf comes out over
and over again, as well as the
disappointments which so often
wait on trainers, owners, and
jockeys."

The Field. — ■" There is a ring of
real sport about it, and the
chatty details are cleverly woven
up with historic matter."

Baily's Magazine. — " We hardly
know whether we prefer the
hunting or racing stories of the
past which Mr. Dixon has
unearthed for us. There is
not a dull page in the book."

In Preparation

NORTH COUNTRY

SPORTSMEN

By W. Scarth Dixon

London: GRANT RICHARDS
9 Henrietta Street
Covent Garden, W.C.

'K

the iijkckb\ . lcjol

SPORT OF KINGS

BY

WILLIAM SCARTH DIXON

AUTHOR OF

IN THE NORTH COUNTREE,' ' THE HISTORY OF THE BRAMHAM MOOR HUNT,

'THE HISTORY OF THE YORK AND AINSTY HUNT,' ETC.

Hontion
GRANT RICHARDS

i 900

"V- V t-» IV. i?

Manhocl I am, therefore I me delyght

To hunt and hawke, to nourish up and fede

The greyhounde to the course, the hawke to th' flyght,

And to bestryde a good and lusty sted ;

These thynges become a very man in dede. — Sir Thomas More.

The love of sport is but another form of the love of Nature.

D. H. Madden.

There is no sport so conducive to health, so bracing to the nerves, and
that gives such a good tone to the stomach as fox-hunting.

Will Goodall
(Letter to Sir Thomas Whichcote).

PREFACE

My thanks are due to the Proprietors of Country
Sport, for whom the bulk of the articles which
make up this book were written, for leave to
reproduce them. They have been in some in-
stances rewritten, and an occasional chapter has
been added, but practically they are given in the
same form as they originally appeared.

As they met with the kind approval of many
of my hunting friends, I venture to express the
hope that they may please when presented in book
form.

I should add that, though I have carefully
refrained from giving names, the anecdotes which
I relate actually took place as I relate them, and
most of them under my own eyes. In the other
cases they were told to me by eye-witnesses.

WILLIAM SCARTH DIXON.

York, October 1899.

INTRODUCTION

A few words seem to be necessary to explain the
scheme of this book, if scheme indeed it may be
said to have. When originally written as news-
paper articles, it is obvious that each subject was
selected as the occasion might demand. One
week " Hunting Etiquette " might be the subject ;
the next " Earth-Stopping " or " Digging-Out,"
or " The Runner " or " The Hunting Parson "
might occupy the attention of my readers. It
seems scarcely necessary to say that such plan,
or want of plan, would be utterly out of place
in a book, and the question necessarily arose as
to what was the best way to classify the material
I had at command. After some consideration I
decided that it would be best to so arrange them
as to describe the hunting man's year, and I
have accordingly adopted that plan so far as is
possible.

It is hoped that, whilst the hunting man who
is to the manner born may find some entertain-
ment in these pages, the tyro will also find some
useful lessons conveyed. But let not either think
that the subject is exhausted. The subject of
hunting is indeed inexhaustible. New methods
are every now and again adopted, and though the
great principles of the craft which are laid down
by Blome and Beckford are still maintained in

viii THE SPORT OF KINGS

their integrity, there are constantly variations
springing up which call for remark and, per-
haps, criticism. Hunting is ever fresh and new,
and though I have now entered on my forty-first
hunting season, I have, I hope, learned something
worth knowing since I saw hounds for the first
time this season at Venniford Post. I would
impress upon the man with limited hunting ex-
perience that he ought to learn something about
the sport that he loves every day that he is out.
And he will learn something every day if he keeps
his eyes open and thinks.

It has been thought best to make the hunting
year start with an account of puppy walking, for
without the young hounds being well and carefully
walked, sport would soon be at a discount. Besides
which I know of nothing which gives greater
pleasure to the true sportsman than to see the
hound he has walked running at the head of
the pack. The training of the hunter, the
chase of the wild red deer, the long exercise,
and the earlier days of cub-hunting follow each
other by natural succession. Subjects incidental
to fox-hunting when the season is in full swing
are then considered, and " April Hunting on the
Moors," " Hunter Breeding," and " The Future
of Fox-Hunting " come in for notice, whilst there
is a chapter on Peterborough Hound Show, which
well marks the boundary between one season and
another.

W. S. D.

CONTENTS

CHAP.
I.

2.

3-

4-
5-
6.

9-

[O.

i.

2.

3-
[4.

5-
[6.

7-
:8.
[9.

20.
21.
22.

23-
2 + .

The Attractions of Fox-Hunting

Hunting a Hundred Years Ago

Puppy Walking

Training the Hunter

Westward Ho ! ...

Replenishing the Stud

The Last Morning Exercise

Cub-Hunting ....

An Early Morning in the Woods

A New Departure .

The Later Cub-Hunting .

What to Wear

Hunt Uniforms

A Few Hints ....

Where to Hunt

Systems of Hunting .

The Preservation of Foxes

The Huntsman

The Whipper-in

Riding Over a Country .

Nerve .....

Two or Three Points of Etiquette

Some Hunting Changes

A Good Run ....

PAGE
I

10

17

21

32

45

54

59
68

72

79

84

88

92

96

100

105

109

114

119

124

131

138
142

X

THE SPORT OF KINGS

CHAP.

25. Hunting Accidents

26. How not to do It

27. Capping

28. Hunting on Foot

29. The Runner

30. With a Strange Pack

31. With a Farmer's Pack

32. The Hunting Parson

33. Hunting Ladies.
34.. The Man who Hunts from Town

35. Some Types of Shooting Tenants

36. A Blank Day .

37. Hunting the Carted Deer

38. The Day after the Ball

39. On Being Thrown Out

40. The Frost

41. A Day on Wheels

42. Earth-Stopping

43. Digging-Out

44. What Becomes of the Foxes ?

45. Men who Hunt a Little.

46. The Critic

47. Not a Hunting Country .

48. By Invitation .

49. Farmers and Fox-Hunting

50. In the Woodlands

51. Some Depredations

52. The Troubles of a Master of Hou

53. Imaginary Grievances

54. "Old Joe"

55. April Hunting; Now — and Then

56. Hunter Breeding

149

153
158
164
168

175
179
185
189
194
198
210
2 14
218
223
228
232
238
242
247
251

255
259
27c
274
282
287
296
300
3°4
3°9
3H

CONTENTS

XI

57. The Ethics of Hunting .

58. For Next Season

59. Peterborough

60. The Future of Fox-Hunting

61. The Hunt Dinner

62. Point-to-Point Races

63. The Opening Day of the Season

64. On Holloaing ....

65. Referring again to Poultry Damages

PAGE
319
324
328

33+
339
344
349
354
362

CHAPTER I

THE ATTRACTIONS OF FOX-HUNTING

Age cannot wither, nor custom stale
Its infinite variety.

The distinguishing feature of the inhabitants of
the United Kingdom is the love of sport. On
moor and loch, by the side of sluggish stream or
the foaming current, amongst the turnips and
stubbles, or by the woodside when the leaves are
falling and the pheasants are rocketing, the votaries
of rod and gun are to be found, as the season
comes round, busily engaged in the sport they
chiefly affect. If a man cannot afford a trip to
Norway, or a salmon river in Scotland, he is con-
tent with what coarse fishing comes in his way,
and in his dreams only does he hear the mighty
rush of Salmo salar. Or if the gun should be his
sport, though the moors may not be attainable, he
manages to put in some happy hours amongst the
partridges, and even if these be but few, Lepus
cuniculus affords rare sport when in the humour
for bolting. An excellent sportsman of my ac-
quaintance had taken a game certificate for thirty
years before he had an opportunity of shooting a
grouse. At last the opportunity came, and as he

B

2 THE SPORT OF KINGS

is a fine shot, he acquitted himself well, and he
thinks and talks more about those ten brace of
grouse which fell to his gun than of all the
excellent days' sport he had seen throughout his
thirty years' experience. To him those grouse
will always be as fresh as they were when the thud,
thud, thud of their bodies on the moor brought
music to his ear.

And as every season brings its pleasures, so
does the fox-hunting season bring the greatest
pleasure of all. There may be some — as a matter
of fact, there are some — who soon drop out of the
ranks of fox-hunters, men who perhaps go well for
two or three seasons, and then, either from loss of
nerve or from self-indulgence, or from giving way
to the enticements of her whom Horace so aptly
styles " the Siren Sloth," give up hunting alto-
gether. But even they, I fancy, have their
moments of regret when they see " the glad throng
that rides laughing along," or when they hear of
a gallant run over a country in which they once
showed to advantage.

It is not with the man who hunts for a season
or two, and then gives up of his own accord, that
I have to deal. Whatever may have been his
motive in taking to the sport — and bear in mind
that no man can take to fox-hunting from a bad
or selfish motive, for hunting is essentially a social
sport — he has never really had the genuine love of
hunting in him. It is the man to the manner
born, for nascitur non jit applies to the fox-hunter
as it does to poet, painter, and gentleman, who
sees in the sport of kings an infinite variety ; to
whom, in his sere old age, hounds and their doings
excite as keen an interest as in his eager youth.

FOX-HUNTING 3

And however good a man he may be with rod or
gun, however great may be his skill with the
cricket bat — in a word, however good an all-round
sportsman he may be, the first of November will
be the red-letter day in his calendar, and it is on
his hunting experiences that he will dwell the
longest and the most lovingly. The old squire of
whom Rogers writes so beautifully, shot and fished
and played cricket no doubt, but we read : —

The fox's brush still emulous to wear,

He scoured the country in his elbow chair.

And old Tom Sebright on his deathbed seeing
" old Bluecap, and Shiner, and Bonny Lass wagging
her stern " is one of the most pathetic incidents
in the history of sport.

One great reason for the hold which hunting
has upon its true votaries is its freshness. History
repeats itself is a truism, but equally true as the
truism is it that history repeats itself less frequently
in the hunting field than elsewhere. This may, to
the uninitiated, seem an exaggeration ; to the man
who knows hunting thoroughly it is nothing but
the plain, unvarnished fact. " What," says the
critic, " you have talked of that run which you
had from Hornblower Hazels, in which hounds
ran hard for forty-five minutes, and killed their
fox, and then you say that three weeks afterwards
you had just such another run, from the same
place, going field by field, and killing within a
field of where you killed your first fox. How do
you make out that history does not repeat itself
here ?" Well, history partially repeats itself, and
only partially. The line of the runs was exactly
the same, or so nearly the same it is not worth

4 THE SPORT OF KINGS

arguing about the minute difference which was
between them, yet to each individual with eyes to
see, who rode in those runs, the incidents of the
chase were as different as possible. Truly, they
were galloping over the same ground, but they
were doing more than that — they were hunting a
fox. Just listen for a moment to what that good
sportsman, my friend Mr. X. Y. Z., has to say
about these two runs. " Yes," says he, speaking
of the first run, " that was a real good gallop from
Hornblower Hazels. Hounds got right on the
top of their fox, and never gave him a chance of
a turn in covert. They ran hard for twenty-five
minutes, and then Farmer Jones's sheep caused a
check. Harry was casting them, when he viewed
fox, clapped hounds close at his brush, and in
another quarter of an hour they rolled him over.
I got fairly away, and was in a fair good place,
but did not see quite so much of hounds' work as
I liked. You see, Bouncer came down at the
brook, and interfered with me a bit. Oh ! the
last run was the best, certainly ; at least, from my
standpoint, though I'm not saying anything against
the other. You see, our fox was well on his legs
this last time, and had got half way over the
second field before Harry had them settled to their
work. Then they did go, my word ! It was like
a steeplechase. I got a nailing start, and took
care that I was not balked at the brook this time.
Hounds ran on for half an hour at top pace, and
then came a most unlooked-for check. Hounds
spread like a fan, and then Ruby hit off the line down
a dry ditch, which the fox had run down for about
a couple of hundred yards, and away we went again
as hard as ever. You know, Ruby was always a

FOX-HUNTING 5

favourite of mine, and I did shout, ' Look at Ruby
now,' as she streamed along two or three lengths
in front of the pack. Ten minutes more, and they
had him. The check did not let many up, and
few saw the fine point which Ruby made. Oh !
there can be no comparison as to which was the
best run." Quite right, my friend, X. Y. Z., and
if the critic answers that only the few men who ride
in the very first flight can see these things, I reply
that very often the very first flight men do not
see what takes place under their very eyes, and
that many a man who has no pretensions to being
a "bruiser" sees more of the hound work than
the man who gallops and jumps, and has no time
for anything else.

Take Slocum, for instance. In his best days
he was never what the late Mr. George Lane Fox
would have called a " thrusting scoundrel." If a
big place came in his way he would jump it, but
he preferred a little one, and in a very few years
he preferred a line of gates. But he did not give
up ; not he. As then so now, he hunts his
four and sometimes five days a week, and finds
time to do a good deal of useful work besides.
His knowledge of woodcraft and knowledge of
country are exceptionally good, and it is good to
bet on that he will see most of the fun without
riding in the first flight. In a racing burst
of twenty minutes, of course, he is not seen to
advantage, but given a run, however fast it may
be, it is a slight shade of odds that Slocum is there
at the critical moment, and should it happen, as it
does sometimes, that the huntsman is not quite
with his hounds, owing to an unlucky turn or a
fall, it is to Slocum that that worthy appeals for

6 THE SPORT OF KINGS

information, and it is on Slocum's information he
acts.

Now, Slocum is a sensible man, his opinion is
courted on important matters, and it stands to
reason that Slocum would not make the sacrifices
he does to secure his hunting — and he does make
sacrifices — if it were not for the " infinite variety "
that there is in the sport which he affects, and of
which he is a distinguished ornament.

For those who go out cub-hunting, who have
time and opportunity, and who have so far secured
the huntsman's confidence as to receive intimation
of the earliest cub-hunting fixtures, the charm of
hunting, its interest and its variety, is much
increased. To begin with, the man who has such
a privilege is a hound man, or he would not be
there. The man who merely hunts to ride would
never take the trouble to rise a little after mid-
night to meet hounds at dawn, and not have a
gallop. But to the man who appreciates hounds
and their work, and who knows the history of the
pack, what pleasure there is in those September
mornings ! What a delight in watching how old
Druid's progeny are entering to their game, and
growing each morning cleverer and cleverer, till
they bid fair soon to be nearly as good as their
wise old sire himself. And as the season wears on
each day brings with it its own peculiar charm.
Even from a blank day an observant man can
learn something of the denizens of the woods.
But the man who stands by the covert side, dis-
cussing volubly local gossip, foreign politics, or
" the swearing of De Grin," sees none of these
things, and to him one blank day only differs
from another in the coverts that are drawn.

FOX-HUNTING 7

I remember once being out at the latter end of
the season with a famous pack. We had drawn
covert after covert without a sign of a fox.
Then we drew a spinney of some twenty or thirty
acres. There was not much undergrowth, but it
was easy to see by those who would take the
trouble to look that there had been a fox there.
Hounds could not speak to the line, they could
not own it in any way, but there was a special
alertness about them, which said as plainly as
words, " Our friend has been about some time,
not so long since." There was a large wood a
field off, and our huntsman drew his hounds out
of the spinney very quietly, and slipped along to
that wood. Some of us went into the wood ; the
bulk of the field rode outside. People were
talking as usual, and said there was no fox there,
but it was, to those who looked, easy to see the
hounds were getting keener and keener. In the
middle of the wood one or two feathered, and then
in a fraction of a second they flew together, like a
man clapping his hands, and opening all at once,
drove on at a rare pace. We had a good run, and
we killed our fox, but the best part of that run
was the find. I have hunted more seasons than I
quite care to talk about, but I never saw such a
perfect find as that. And it is in such apparently
little things as these that the great charm of hunt-
ing lies. Never do exactly similar circumstances
take place. There is a constant freshness of
incident, which doubtless exists in other sports,
but in none in so remarkable a degree as it does
in fox-hunting.

Perhaps a word may be devoted to our critics.
We fox -hunters have been called "red-coated

8 THE SPORT OF KINGS

ruffians" by morbid humanitarians. It is a com-
pliment to be called names by such apologies for
men, and for their criticisms we need only care so
far as it is necessary to protect our sport from
their insidious attacks. The morbid humanitarian
on the war-path is a creature devoid of scruples ;
he is insidious in his attack ; he is persevering ;
but he is not dangerous if he be opposed thoroughly.
His chance is that he is despised by the good men
and true against whom he is working, and he
makes the most of his chance. In season and out
of season he should be opposed, and whatever he
may bring forward, it behoves sportsmen to see
that there is no attack against sport hidden under
his scheme, for, like the famous J. B., he is " sly,
sir, devilish sly."

The charge of cruelty against fox-hunters has
been brought again and again by these humani-
tarians, but they never make good their case.
There is a story told of a hunting man, who,
when assailed as to this side of his favourite sport,
said, " Why, everything likes hunting ; I like it,
the horse likes it, the hounds like it, and I verily
believe the foxes like to be hunted." Here is the
same thought, which, of course, the supercilious
humanitarian turns up his virtuous nose at, ex-
pressed in different words — the words of a great
man, whose name will live for ever in the history
of his country. He imagines a fox addressing the
humanitarians after the abolition of fox-hunting : —

" Formerly we were allowed six months in
the year to gain our livelihood and bring up our
families in quiet ; many of us, it is true, were
destroyed in the course of the winter, but that
was the fortune of war, and the enemv did not

FOX-HUNTING 9

beat up our quarters more than half a dozen times
in the whole year. Upon the whole, we lived a
pleasant life — short and disturbed perhaps, but
safe from trap and gun, and in the midst of
plenty ; but now that you have interfered with
your humanity, there has come out a general
order to shoot and destroy us wherever we may
be found, till our ancient family is exterminated.
And this is out of your special kindness ! "

Such is the opinion of that great statesman
Lord John Russell, and the thanks of all his
brother sportsmen are due to Sir Herbert Max-
well for tracing the authorship of that eloquent
and truly sensible passage. I cannot do better
than conclude by commending Lord John Russell's
words to all, friends and enemies of sport alike,
and to wish the former all sorts of good luck

When they meet once again,

Though it sleet or it rain,

For the sport that is always new.

CHAPTER II

HUNTING A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

So sang the late Poet Laureate, and the lines may-
be as fitly applied to hunting as to anything else
which is affected by what is known euphuistically
as the march of civilisation. Hunting is perforce
conducted differently from what it was in the days
when George III. was king, and, in some respects,
at any rate, it can scarcely be said to have improved,
whilst in others it has, to use another euphuism,
"marched with the times." Nowadays hounds run
faster, they are more level and sorty, and there are
more men who ride hard and straight, but the old
days were good days, and in many respects we
might follow the example of our ancestors, who,
whatever were their faults, could not be looked
upon as feather-bed sportsmen.

There cannot be a greater blunder than that
which is sometimes, nay, frequently, made by
writers who have little practical knowledge of
hunting, to the effect that until comparatively
recent times hunting men were destitute of refine-
ment. Squire Western is held up by them as the
type of every hunting squire who lived prior to

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO n

quite recent times, and they quote the fox-hunters'
orgy in Thomson's "Seasons" as an accurate de-
scription of how the hunting world went then. It
may be urged with justice that Thomson and
Fielding wrote more than a hundred years ago,
and that therefore the hunting man of a hundred
years ago is not affected by what they wrote. It
can, moreover, be stated without fear of contra-
diction that more than a hundred years ago fox-
hunting was

Pastime for princes, prime sport of our nation,

and that men of refinement and education joined in
the sport as freely as they do in these days. The
social customs of a hundred years ago were, of
course, different from what they are now, a differ-
ent standard of manners prevailed, and it is as unfair
to sneer at fox-hunting because of the vulgarities
of Squire Western as it would be to disparage
literature on account of the eccentricities of Henry
Fielding himself.

A hundred years ago hunting was principally
confined to country gentlemen, well-to-do farmers,
and, perhaps, the parson and the village doctor,
who resided within the limits of the hunt ; though,
of course, even in those days, Melton was a fashion-
able resort, and the Shires were beginning to be
looked upon as the desideratum of the hunting
man. But it may be laid down as an absolute
fact that in and about the year 1796 nearly all
men hunted from home, and that when our fore-
fathers went to hunt the fox,

In broad lapped coat, top boots, black cap, and a pigtail
sticking out,

they probably knew every man over whose land

12 THE SPORT OF KINGS

they were about to ride. Consequently, as they
were living and hunting amongst their friends and
neighbours, as there were comparatively few of
them, and, consequently, damages were limited,
there was none of that friction with the farmers
which now unhappily exists in some countries
where large fields of strangers bruise along entirely
regardless of the damage they do, and perhaps with
scarcely a civil word for the remonstrant occupier
of the soil, who is righteously grieved at needless
mischief.

In the good old days gorse coverts, as we know
them, were so scarce as to be practically non-
existent, foxes were also scarcer and worse to
find, so an entirely different style of hunting was
necessary. To begin with, it was essential to
make an early start in order that the drag might
not be too stale. For, instead of waving hounds
into a gorse covert or wood, as is now the case, it
was imperative that the overnight drag of the fox
should be hit upon and that he should be hunted
up to his kennel. So daybreak was the usual
hour of meeting, and hounds proceeded to try the
open commons and moors, which then prevailed
to a greater extent than they do now. A drag is
hit upon, hounds at first perhaps can barely own
it, and the huntsman's watchful eye is needed to
prevent them running heel. All goes well,
however, the drag grows warmer and warmer,
they will find him immediately, for the occasional
notes of a wise and fine-nosed old hound have for
some minutes gradually been swelling into a chorus.
They must be close to his kennel now. See, there
he is ! and now opening all together hounds settle
down to their work in grim earnest, and the run

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO 13

begins. It is a very difficult country, too, over
which they run ; there are fewer enclosures and
more common and moorland than at present ;
the fences which separate the enclosures are very
different, big, straggling, unkempt blackthorn
hedges with drains being the principal obstacles
— obstacles which required to be ridden at in very
different style from the modern flying fences if you
would get to the other side in safety.

The hounds, as has already been intimated,
were of a very different character. They were
bigger and coarser, such a thing as a " straight "
hound was practically unknown ; he is practically
a creation of the hound show. They were throaty
— perhaps modern critics would say that they were
noisy, but they had wonderfully fine noses, a good
cry, and they showed sport and killed their foxes,
whilst if they did not run quite so fast as do their
successors, they ran quite fast enough for horses
to follow them over the undrained and boggy
moors which prevailed in the good old times.

Having killed their fox, in many hunts they
claimed from the churchwarden of the parish in
which he was killed 5 s., which was spent in a
bowl of punch, and in some it was expected that
every man who was up at the death should dine
at the nearest public-house, where it is probable
that much punch was consumed, and a good deal
of the same talk indulged in as that which delights
the youthful fox-hunter of the present day over
his " long drink " and cigarette. This custom was
by no means fair either to hounds or horses, but,
though there is no doubt that on occasion there
would be more "feast" than "reason" about it,
it by no means always implied a drunken orgy.

i4 THE SPORT OF KINGS

Hounds were probably to meet at daybreak the
following morning, and if at a distant fixture that
might entail a couple of hours' riding in the dark,
whilst even if it were not a hunting day those of
our ancestors who lived in the country were early
risers.

Hunt balls and hunt dinners were more common
a hundred years ago, and they were conducted on
different lines from what they generally are in the
present day. They had more of the family
gathering about them. Any decent man in the
Hunt was welcome to come and bring his wife
and daughters to the ball ; the price was within
the means of almost any man who could hunt ; an
enjoyable evening was spent, and the old-fashioned
Hunt ball was a factor which worked for the good
of the Hunt. The same may be said of the Hunt
dinner, which was by no means the formal and
stiff affair which a public dinner generally is in
these days. Perhaps it is impossible to revive
the Hunt ball and Hunt dinner on the old lines ;
perhaps it is undesirable to do so, even if it were
possible ; but I must own to having a weak corner
for them. They may belong to "those good
customs " which, if persistently indulged in, " cor-
rupt a world," but they were pretty phases of the
country life which was so enjoyable when the first
Duke of Cleveland hunted from Stocksfield-on-
Tyne to Ruffbrd in Nottinghamshire, and wakened
the echoes with his horn, where Bedale, and Lord
Zetland's, and York and Ainsty, and Bramham
and the Badsworth, and other packs keep "the
tambourine a-rowling," to use the words of James
Pigg, from October to April.

"The old order changeth," as I have said, but

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO 15

there is one thing that does not change, and hearts
are as true to sport, old hands are as wise, and young
hands as keen as when the first Duke of Cleveland
rode out from Raby with his retinue of devoted
followers. What may be termed the continuity
of hunting is one of its principal features. There
is nothing spasmodic about it ; men may come
and men may go, but, like the brook, hunting
still goes on its way, let us hope, for ever. Some
countries may be given up for a time, but even
when they are of the roughest, and what every one
but an enthusiast would call unhuntable, some one
generally turns up in a few years to try them once
more. Badminton, Brocklesby, and Belvoir are
still household words, as they have been for up-
wards of two hundred years, and Wentworth and
Milton are still famous for their hounds. John
Warde and Mr. Musters, Lord Darlington and
" the Squire," and Mr. Assheton Smith have
worthy successors in Mr. George Lane Fox and
Mr. E. P. Rawnsley, in Lord Zetland, Mr.
Corbett, and Lord Lonsdale. In North Wales
and Cheshire another Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn
reigns as successfully as did his ancestors of that
name, and in the wild west the name of Nicholas
Snow is associated with sport as it was in the days
of the Doones and Katerfelto. And, in spite of
gloomy forebodings, there is a bright lookout
forward. All over the country are keen young
men, who, when they take hold of hounds, do
not intend to be the merely ornamental figure-head
despised of our worthy friend Jorrocks. They
want to know, and they get to know. Such being
the case, the future of fox-hunting seems to be
assured, and when a hundred years hence the

16 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hunting of the last century comes to be reviewed,
there is every prospect of as brilliant a record as
that which has just been glanced at briefly. Other
times, other manners, but so long as the old spirit
remains, the old sport will survive in spite of its
enemies, and the day will never come,

When the gorse is uprooted
The foxhound is dumb.

CHAPTER III

PUPPY WALKING

Unto thy choicest friends
Commit thy valued prize : the rustic dames
Shall at thy kennel wait, and in their laps
Receive thy growing hopes . . .

and dignify their little charge
With some great title, and resounding name
Of high import. Somerville.

The most superficial observer whose experience
has reached over a period of a score years cannot
fail to be struck with the marked improvement
which is shown in the modern foxhound. He has
lost that heavy, throaty appearance which at
one time prevailed ; badly placed shoulders such
as once passed muster are seldom, if ever, seen ; a
shoulder-shaken hound is almost unheard of.

Now I do not wish to infer that the present
generation knows more about hounds than those
which have gone before it ; the " system of Mey-
nell " was not a creation of the nineteenth century,
and what one Peter Beckford did not know about
hunting was not worth knowing. So, long before
the present century put in an appearance, there
were packs of hounds as well managed both in the
shires and in the provinces as any are to-day. But
in the provinces but few hounds were bred, com-

c

18 THE SPORT OF KINGS

paratively speaking, and even in the shires there were
not so many bred as there are at the present day.

I know of one country where, within my recol-
lection, some eight to ten couples were all the
puppies sent out to walk season after season, and
where now from forty-five to fifty couples of
puppies are sent out every year. Nor is this an
isolated case. In many four-days-a-week countries
that I know, as many as seventy couples will be
sent out to walk, and yet only perhaps some sixteen
or eighteen couples are put forward. Nor is there
any difficulty in finding walks for foxhound
puppies ; it is, indeed, the other way on, and there
is frequently some trouble in supplying the wants
of the puppy walkers.

It may be laid down as a first principle that,
no matter how carefully and how well a foxhound
puppy may be bred, his excellence, so far as
regards make and shape, depends greatly on the
quarters he gets, and it is an undoubted fact that
it is to the great improvement in puppy-walking
methods that the great improvement in the
appearance of foxhounds is due. I have seen
in my time a poor brute of a foxhound puppy
chained to a kennel, fed on all kinds of food till
he was " ugly " fat, and confined till he was
crooked. " Why do you tie him up ? " I asked.
" Oh, he runs after the poultry," was the reply.
" You are ruining him," said I ; but the good
woman would not see it, and very indignant she
was when she heard that he was one of the first
drafted. " I'm sure he was well done and had
plenty of milk," said the worthy lady ; and so he
had, and he had also a belly like the fat pig which
was not so very far from him.

PUPPY WALKING 19

Milk. — Yes, milk is a sine qua non when the
whelps are first sent out, though some of them, I
fancy, don't get much of it, and yet thrive fairly
well. But what milk they get must be good ; no
skim milk, or whey, or buttermilk should be given
under any circumstances. But, as a rule, there is
plenty of good pickings about a farmhouse for one
hound, or even for two, if a little offal is got from
the butcher and boiled. Broth is a grand thing
for young hounds, and I don't believe in giving
them much raw food.

Food is, of course, an important item, but still
more important is liberty. A foxhound puppy
should never be shut up save at night, and then
he should go into the stable. It is a capital
plan to shut a young hound up with your
hunters. They get to see and know hounds, and
it keeps them from kicking hounds when they are
out.

Liberty, I have said, is an essential thing. It
is absolutely cruel to keep a young hound shut up
in a loose-box even. He will be crooked as a
yoke stick, spiritless, and good for nothing, and all
the care that has been bestowed upon him will have
been bestowed upon him in vain, for he is sure to
go in an early draft.

And, sir or madam — you who want to enrol
yourselves amongst the noble army of puppy
walkers, and it is a noble army, one to which fox-
hunters are for ever beholden — do not expect
that the innocent-looking and clumsy and some-
what helpless - looking being whom the first
whipper-in leaves at your door with a grin, is going
to turn out a lapdog at 5 st. 7 lb. He will wax
in strength, he will become full of wild animal

20 THE SPORT OF KINGS

spirits, he will romp, and he will get into mischief.
And, oh ! what mischief he will get in ! He will
chevy the cat till she grows thin and harassed ; he
will bounce into the middle of the hens or the
ducks when they are being fed ; he will chase
them round the yard, wild with the delight of
feeling his increasing strength ; any article laid on
the grass to bleach he will instantly proceed to
tear to pieces in leisurely fashion, and if you shout
at him he will most likely run off with it. Don't
get angry with him ; don't let the servant throw
the broom at him, or, as I have seen, "hammer"
him with a thick stick. Bear your annoyances
patiently, and think what a fine puppy he is.
And also remember that, if you gain his confidence,
he is really a very biddable animal indeed.

And if you want to confine the mischief of
your puppy within reasonable dimensions, the best
thing you can do is to keep a couple. They will
play with each other instead of with the poultry, and,
though they occasionally meddle with a dishcloth
or with linen that comes within their reach, it will
only be when their teeth are troubling them.

One thing should be avoided, and that is to let
them run with the sheep dog. He will teach
them to hunt, but they will want no teaching in
that direction. But he may teach them to run
sheep. Once detected in that act they should at
once be sent back to the kennel.

One golden rule should be observed. When a
young hound is ailing send to the huntsman at
once, and do not attempt to give any specifics.
This, and to keep a couple of puppies instead of
one, are golden rules for puppy walkers.

CHAPTER IV

TRAINING THE HUNTER

He must be taught and trained and bid go forth.

"Julius Casar.

It is somewhat astonishing to those who know
how popular hunting is and the demand that
exists for a really well-mannered hunter that that
animal should be so very scarce. In any large
field of horsemen, pulling, bolting, and refusing
animals preponderate, and it is comparatively
seldom that a really fine-mannered horse is seen.
By a fine-mannered horse I mean one that will go
at the pace his rider wishes, whether he be gallop-
ing or going at his fences, and this in a crowd.
Of course I do not mean that there are no "quiet"
horses. Quiet horses may have bad manners as
well as the tearing rakeaway type, and generally
the " quiet " horse is a spiritless brute, never seen
in a good place, and one that seldom gets through
a run with credit to himself and satisfaction to his
rider. A good -mannered hunter is a different
animal from this. He is a horse that always answers
to his rider's hand, that does not make a rash bolt
when some other horse comes galloping past him,
and that jumps his fences, no matter what they
may be, in collected form, and in the style in

22 THE SPORT OF KINGS

which they should be jumped. And jumping a
fence properly and getting to the other side of one
are widely different matters, as I know by painful
experience.

But if a man looks round and " tak's notes "
when he is hunting he will not wonder that there
are so few thoroughly -trained, well-mannered
hunters, but that there are, comparatively speak-
ing, so many. Amongst the crowd, and thrusting
his way into it in the vain endeavour to take a
young one into the place which none but a
seasoned hunter can take and keep, will be seen
a promising three-year-old with his long coat on
him, with an ill-fitting saddle on his back, and a
man who fits the saddle worse than the saddle fits
the horse. In his mouth will be found a bridle
which is put on at haphazard, without much
thought being given as to whether it fits or is
adapted to the peculiarities of his mouth. The
rider has a pair of spurs on with big rowels in
them — that goes without saying — and the spurs
are always in evidence. So are the rider's hands,
heavy, and always pulling at the horse's mouth,
which he euphemistically calls " holding him to-
gether and lifting him." That the horse has
never been schooled at home is clear, and so the
first thing his rider does when he brings him out
to see hounds is to select some one whose horse
has a reputation of being a good jumper, as his
unwilling pilot. If the country is an easy one,
with flying fences, all goes well enough for a time,
the young one jumps big enough, stretching and
"yawing" at his bridle as each fence is approached,
and going faster and faster at each until, with his
lack of condition, he becomes too tired to jump,

TRAINING THE HUNTER 23

and he either refuses or falls. Now, under such
circumstances it seems impossible to train a hunter
properly, and though some of the bad habits which
have been so carefully inculcated into the young
horse may be subsequently eradicated by careful
and judicious riding, an indifferent horseman soon
brings all the old faults to the front.

The training of hunters cannot be commenced
at too early an age. When it is remembered that
the better bred a horse is and the higher spirited
he is the more nervous he is, it stands to reason
that from the earliest age he should be accustomed
to be handled and made familiar with his master
and his ways. Therefore, as soon as is possible,
he should be haltered, and whilst he is a foal run-
ning with his dam no opportunity should be lost
of handling him and getting him to lead. In
these days of showing there is generally plenty of
pains taken with a likely foal to make him show
himself, but as soon as the foal is weaned he is no
more noticed, and probably, unless he should be a
show horse, is never handled until he is broken in.
The breaking in of a hunter is a matter which
should certainly not be conducted in a hurried
way, and there is too much inclination to think
that a month is about plenty of time in which to
complete his education. To make a horse have
good manners his education should begin, as I
have already indicated, when he is a foal, for the
same reason that you do not wait to teach a boy
to be a gentleman till you send him to college.

When a yearling he should be frequently led
about, and when practicable he should be handled
every day. I think it is not a bad plan, where the
time can be spared, to put him into the bridles for

24 THE SPORT OF KINGS

a fortnight when a two-year-old. A relative of
mine, who always had " handy " horses, resorted
to this plan, and found it answer admirably. The
colt was carefully lunged for a fortnight, and then
driven for another week or ten days in long reins,
a most useful part of breaking which is far too
much neglected. For there is nothing better than
the long reins, when used by a workman, to make
a horse have a good mouth ; and without a good
mouth there is no such thing as good manners.

The colt should be continually handled whilst
he is turned away, for if he is allowed to become
shy again the time that has been spent on him is
so much time wasted. I think that it is advisable
to commence the serious business of breaking when
a colt is three years old, and it is essential that he
should be in good condition when the breaking in
begins. Otherwise he will fall weak in a short
time, and will have either his spirit or his temper
broken, both of which are very undesirable. The
breaking in of the three-year-old is a crucial period
in the history of the horse, and once more I would
advocate perseverance with the use of the long
reins. Generally there is too great a hurry to get
on to a horse's back, for it is no easy work driving
a young and well-bred horse about in the long
reins. But to ensure a good mouth it is necessary,
and a young active man is required for the job.
And above all things it is necessary that the man
should never hang on the horse's mouth, and that
he should secure perfect control over him before
he is mounted.

Though it may be too much to say that all
cases of bad manners and vice can be traced back
to the careless handling of a young horse during

TRAINING THE HUNTER 25

his educational period, there is no doubt that a
great deal of what is undesirable in a horse's
manner is directly traceable to this cause. There
are two great errors which are frequently observ-
able in the riding of a young horse after he has
got that he will carry a saddle without taking
any very active means to get rid of the man who
is on the top of it. The first is generally com-
mitted by a self-sufficient groom, conceited of his
own powers as a horseman. The horse carries him
quietly, and has begun to answer to his bridle, so
the clever fellow thinks that he has nothing to do
but ride about " like a gentleman." And this he
does by letting the horse " put his head " wherever
he likes. The consequence is that the horse gets
lazy and careless as well as the man, and as bad
habits are easily acquired and hard to get rid of, the
horse gets into a slovenly way of going which
never quite leaves him, no matter how good his
subsequent training may be. The other fault is
equally disastrous in its effects, the country
bumpkin, promoted pro tern, to the dignity of horse-
breaker, being generally the greatest offender in
this way. He has got some sort of a strong seat,
i.e. by means of keeping fast hold of his horse's
head, and wrapping his legs round him, he can
manage to " remain." And he is never happy
unless he is, as he thinks, " witching the world
with noble horsemanship." He is constantly
irritating his horse to make him bounce about or
even kick, and whichever the poor unfortunate
brute does he is sure to get punished. His mouth
is sawed at, whip and spurs are used, and all
because he does what his rider really wanted him
to do. Small wonder then that there are so many

26 THE SPORT OF KINGS

horses who are inclined to take the law into their
own hands when age and experience have shown
them their strength. There is no exaggeration in
these statements ; a man has only to go quietly along
a country lane to find plenty of instances of both.

It must be palpable to any one that it is of the
greatest importance that the man who rides the
young horse, and more especially the young hunter,
during the first few weeks of his educational career,
should be a fine and careful horseman. He should
devote the whole of his attention to the horse he
is riding, marking his peculiarities of disposition,
and doing his best to remedy any little defects of
manner, generally caused by nervousness or ignor-
ance, without having recourse to severe punishment.
Mind, I am by no means in favour of the molly-
coddling and petting treatment advocated by some.
When the time comes, as come it must sooner or
later, that the horse and his rider have a real
difference of opinion, one of them will have to be
master, and the more firmly it is impressed upon
the horse that it is not he who has got the better of
the struggle, the better will it be for both.

Two things should be taught the hunter before
ever he sees a fence — to stand quite still whilst he
is being mounted, and to walk well. How few
hunters we see that do either, yet they may easily
be trained with patience. Then, too, a horse
should be taught to gallop. I remember riding a
horse once, a five-year-old, with a view to purchase.
The horse could jump, but he had only been
" dodged about " and cantered. I had heard a
wonderful account of the cleverness of this animal
and looked forward to a good ride. Hounds
found in a nice patch of gorse. I got a good

TRAINING THE HUNTER 27

start (there were really only two of us who got
away on good terms with hounds), and hounds
raced. Under such conditions there is generally a
little jealous riding, and " we two " set to work at
each other with a will. A few small fields with
big fences were crossed all right and then we came
into bigger enclosures. And then I found that my
horse absolutely did not know how to gallop. As
soon as I put him to his top pace he sprawled and
sprawled, and after we had run for about a quarter
of an hour he gave me a fall that it still makes me
sore to think of. A second fall and the deal was
" off." Yet he was a good horse, only his educa-
tion had been neglected.

Having taught your young hunter to walk, trot,
canter, and gallop, you may now begin to teach
him how to jump, i.e. unless you have already
given him a few lessons as you were going on with
his other work. An old sportsman, who was
famous for his timber-jumpers, used to teach them
in this way. He laid a strong larch pole down in
the opening to the fold where he fed the young
ones with corn. They stepped over this, of course,
and he gradually increased the height till they were
obliged to begin to make little jumps, and he
increased it up to 4 feet 6 inches, which he said
was big enough for him, and I think it is for
most of us. If horses can be induced to jump
in this way, or to pop over a little drain in
coming for their corn, it is, of course, an excellent
plan. Otherwise it is, I think, advisable that the
jumping lesson should be postponed till the horse
has got pretty well through his rudimentary educa-
tion ; and this for the reason that, with a horse at
any rate, one thing at a time is sufficient to learn.

28 THE SPORT OF KINGS

And it is for this reason that I advocate teaching
the horse to jump at home. A horse when he
goes into the hunting-field has so much to distract
his attention that though he may jump if sent on
after a known good performer, he will never
become really clever and well mannered. I had a
horse that had been taught in this way, and though
he was clever as a monkey, and a big jumper, very
rarely making a mistake, he was somewhat erratic.
I believe the majority of well-bred horses like
jumping, though many are a trifle shy of taking to
it at starting. The best plan I think is to teach
your young hunter to jump in the long reins, and
for this reason. When you have got him up to
the small fence — always begin with a small, but
strong, fence — he will probably dwell for a time,
then suddenly make a big plunge and jump wildly
and big. Under these circumstances even a good
horseman might take a little too much hold of the
horse's mouth when he landed. Every variety of
fence should be negotiated in the long reins, and
the horse should be encouraged as much as possible
by voice. When he has got to jump fairly in the
long reins, it is then time to ride him over fences.
Companionship is good for him here, but care
should be taken to let him take a line of his own,
and not to ride immed^ely in the wake of one
of the other horses. iWis no bad plan to let
him take the lead occasionally, and if there are a
few old hounds that will run a drag, they may be
looked upon as contributing their share to the
making of a hunter that should, for the sake both
of those who have to ride him and those who have
to ride in his company, know a lot of his work
thoroughly before he is taken out with foxhounds.

TRAINING THE HUNTER 29

It is obvious that a horse, to become a perfect
hunter, must go through some of his school-
ing with hounds, but there is a good deal of the
preliminary schooling which might and ought to
be done at home, and which is generally left to the
hunting field. In the first place, it is essential that
a horse should not be alarmed at or kick at
hounds, and to prevent such a contretemps the
best plan is for the owner of the young horse
to walk a couple of puppies and keep them
in the stable with his pupils, who will soon become
familiar and friendly with them, and so, as a
natural consequence, he will take little notice of
hounds when they come across him in the hunting
field. In the meantime a word of warning may
be given to the man who rides a young horse, or,
for the matter of that, an old horse in the hunting
field. It is not vice but fear which causes a horse
to kick at hounds nine times out of ten, and
therefore it is incumbent upon the rider to keep
a careful look-out that hounds don t come too
suddenly behind his horse. In the early part of the
cub-hunting season young horses, if they are taken
out at all, should be kept out of the rides and at a
distance from hounds, for the young hounds have
not yet got to know their work, and when they
miss their companions wid^run up to any horse
they see in the rides in their search for their
huntsman. An excellent plan, and one which
should always be adopted when possible, is to let a
young horse see hounds as frequently as possible
when driven in the long reins, taking care, of
course, to keep out of the way of hounds. He will
be much handier when ridden, though of course he
will require careful watching all the same.

30 THE SPORT OF KINGS

When September has well-nigh come to an end,
the young hunter may be taken cubbing with
advantage, though for the safety of himself and
his rider he should have been schooled sufficiently
at home to know a good deal of what is expected
from him. I don't suppose that any one would now
ride a horse out hunting in the breaking bridles as
I have seen on occasion, and I suppose that the
horse has been so far broken that he can gallop in
nice form and pull himself together in obedience
to his rider's signal. A hunter, however, has
something else to do than to gallop. He has
to jump all kinds of fences with the least waste
of effort possible, and to enable him to do this
he requires a " liberal education." At most large
establishments there is what is termed a school —
that is, an enclosed place where there are various
kinds of fences not necessarily high or formidable,
but rather unyielding in their nature. These
schools are circular, and there are three or four
obstacles to be surmounted. The horse is turned
loose without saddle or bridle, and driven over
them, with the result that he soon learns to get
himself to the other side without " chancing his
jumps." A few mornings in one of these schools
affords great educational advantages, and after the
young horse has gone through a course here he
may be lunged or driven with long reins over a
series of little fences with narrow drains at one side
or another.

Having taught a horse that there is no great
difficulty in getting to the other side of an ordinary
fence, the next thing to do is to teach him to carry
his rider over fences.

It is a very different matter jumping a few

TRAINING THE HUNTER 31

fences at home from jumping them with hounds.
Perhaps for a time or two the young one will want
sharpening up a bit ; then he will enter into the
spirit of the thing, and become a bit wild, not
quite caring where he puts his feet. As the
country is always sufficiently blind in October, the
probability is that he will find himself on his back,
than which, should he happen not to hurt himself,
— and the odds are very long against his doing so —
nothing better can happen to him. He will learn
to temper his courage with caution. There is one
fault which young horses, and occasionally old
ones, develop. They get clever with practice, and
then they begin to chance thorn fences. Thorn
fences do not require as a rule to be quite so
cleanly jumped as stiff posts or rails, but in
strongly fenced countries there are many of them
with which it is not safe to take liberties. So
that when a horse develops the habit of " rush-
ing " his thorn fences he must have another
" school," for which the lunging rein must be
called into request. A good stout cart rope
six or eight inches from the top of a fence will
soon teach the young 'un that he must rise at all
of them.

CHAPTER V

WESTWARD HO !

There lies your way, due west.
Then, Westward Ho {—Twelfth Night.

Thanks to our increased facilities for travel, the
hunting man, even if his leisure be of the shortest,
can begin his season sooner by three months than
he was wont to do in the good old days when
George the Third was king. And lest there
should be any misunderstanding, I will here ex-
plain that by the hunting man I do not mean a
gentleman whose lines are cast in such pleasant
places that he can live amongst country pursuits
all his life. For that man there is a constant
round of happy employment, all leading up to
his favourite sport, if he be a hunting man. The
individual I have more particularly in my mind
is the busy professional man or merchant, a man
with little leisure but great love for sport, and who
takes his two days a week or three days a fort-
night, from November to March, stealing another
day whenever he has the chance. For him there
is no cub-hunting ; the very fact that his resid-
ence is many miles from the scene of action pre-
vents him taking part in that most enjoyable
sport. And indeed were he, so to speak, on the

WESTWARD HO ! 33

spot, the nature of his avocations would prevent
him from taking part in a sport which frequently,
in its earlier days at any rate, involves the neces-
sity of rising about 2 a.m.

But in these days of easy and rapid travelling
almost any man may manage, with a little contriv-
ing, to get a fortnight's holiday in August or Sep-
tember, and where can he take it so well as in the
bonnie West Country, where the mighty coombes
look like stationary waves, and the heights of Ex-
moor — home of the handsomest ponies in the
world ; home of the blackcock, with his defiant
crow ; and, best of all, home of the wild red
deer — overlook the tossing waves of the Bristol
Channel ? If the good lady of the house wishes to
take "the girls to the seaside," where can she
take them to better than Minehead; and whilst you,
my hunting friend, are enjoying yourself to the
top of your bent on breezy uplands, there is quite
plenty of entertainment for the ladies of your
family in exploring the neighbourhood, and on non-
hunting days you cannot do better than join them.

Dunster in itself deserves many a pilgrimage,
and, crede experto, there is ever something new
about these quaint North Somerset towns and
villages, and ever some stirring bit of history to
hear about place or people. It is not at every
place along the English coast that a troop of horse
took a warship ; but that happened not so many
miles from Dunster, as those who know their
county history are proud to tell. Of course there
are no nigger minstrels or piers with lugubrious
bands murdering music a la Wagner, but there is
a lot of fun to be had in North Somersetshire,
leaving the sport out.

34 THE SPORT OF KINGS

But, after all, the sport is the thing — and what
a glorious sport it is ! An you be a hound man
— and I take it that most of my readers are or
wish to be — you will, on every day you go out,
see something which will appeal to you and live
long in your memory, whilst if you be of those to
whom a gallop is the be-all and end-all of hunting,
it will go hard with you if you have not some-
thing to talk about before the end of your fort-
night's leave. Indeed, what you see in that fort-
night will keep you going to November, and will
put you in condition as well. Jumping you will
not have, and should you chance, as I have done
more than once, to fall in with a stag that takes
you more miles than I care to estimate before he
stands at bay, and that keeps on before hounds for
the short period of four hours and twenty minutes,
you will, I fancy, however great a " glutton for
fencing " you may be, be thankful for small
mercies as I was, and be glad to put your jumping
exploits off " till the forty minutes on the grass,"
which is the acme of your delight, comes off.

One word, though, I must say to you in warn-
ing. If you should perchance be an adept in the
hunting of the fox or the timid hare, forget all the
woodcraft that those pursuits have taught you.
Hunting the wild red deer is a thing per se, and is
very different in many respects from the precon-
ceived notions one is apt to form of it. To
thoroughly enjoy stag-hunting on Exmoor it must
be judged by its own standard. It is unfair to
fox-hunting and it is unfair to stag-hunting to
compare the two. There is no common ground
of comparison, and for my own part I could take
two hours or three over Exmoor with a stag one

WESTWARD HO ! 35

day, and " forty minutes o'er the grass without a
check " the next, a quo animo.

A friend of mine once said to me when the sun
was pouring its rays down on us in pitiless fashion,
and the radiation of the heat from the grand stand
— it was at a race meeting — made the enclosure
seem like the Black Hole at Calcutta, at 5 st. 7 lb.,
for heat, " It is too hot to hunt." My reply was,
" Is it ? " It is never too hot or too anything to
hunt, save too frosty or too foggy, from the first
by -day the Devon and Somerset have till the
remotest moorland pack has killed its May fox.
Bear that in mind, my hunting tyro, and so shall
you see many a good run you would otherwise
have missed.

So my advice to all and sundry of my hunting
friends is to try and get a fortnight on the breezy
uplands of Somersetshire and Devon, to make a
pilgrimage to the mythical Doone valley, and all
the better will that pilgrimage be appreciated if
there should be a " stag o' ten " before you that
had led you nearly a four-hours' chase " o'er brake
and scaur " from the Deer park, as happened when
I first set eyes on that picturesque spot.

If you have any eye for the picturesque in
scenery or in hunting — if you have any love of
hounds and hound work, if you delight in
scrambling over a rough country and in over-
coming difficulties — in a word, if you view hunting
in any other light than that of galloping so many
miles in an apocryphal number of minutes, and
jumping so many fences of more or less — generally
less — formidable proportions, you will enjoy your-
self immensely, even should your luck be out, and
you should fail to fall in with one of those brilliant

36 THE SPORT OF KINGS

gallops which would prove such a sure test of your
horse's stamina, and — equally important — of your
own. Perhaps, to a man who thinks that hunting
means nothing more than over-riding hounds in
Leicestershire or Northamptonshire pastures, the
advice to hunt with the Devon and Somerset is
superfluous. He would go down, look at the horse
which he hired with undisguised contempt, dub the
country impossible, and think his time wasted. In
other words, he would see nothing. But there are
men who can hold their own with the best, men
who " rush across the brimming brook, who top
the post and rail," to whom the grand instinct of
the hound appeals as strongly as does the " mad-
ness of the gallop, fifty minutes on the grass " ;
and they are the men whom I venture to advise in
the matter of early hunting, and for them I give a
few of my own impressions and experiences. If
they are the men I take them for, we shall, I think,
find subject for mutual congratulation when we
forgather after their hunting experiences in the
" wild west country."

In the first place I would strongly advise any one
who intends to hunt with the Devon and Somerset
not to take his own horses. The probability is
that if he does he will find himself in a " tight
place," out of which he will have some difficulty in
getting with credit to himself, or even with safety.
I had to ride up and down a precipitous sort of
place, nearly as steep as a house-side, which I
tackled with a tremor cordis which was certainly
not shared by the good mare placed at my disposal,
and I may say that I would sooner face the biggest
jumpable place in Yorkshire on one of my own
horses, with the certainty of a fall, than ride the

WESTWARD HO ! 37

same animal up and down that same place in
Cutcombe Covert. And if, when you hire, you
should find what, to your experiences of hunt-
ing in the more or less fashionable country of
your choice, you feel inclined to dub an under-
sized, common-looking horse placed at your service,
don't despise him. He will carry you forty or fifty
miles in a day, or even more, galloping over the
stony moors when occasion calls, and come home,
where a quarter of a mile of level going is bad to
meet with, in a manner which is sure to win your
admiration, even if he is, from your standpoint, a
plain one.

p^The first thing that will strike a hound man
when he looks at the Devon and Somerset pack is
the wonderful skill with which his favourite fox-
hound is bred. It stands to reason that a pack of
hounds, the lowest standard of which is 25 inches,
must be largely dependent on drafts, and when I
had a look at the hounds on the flags I met with
representatives of such old canine friends as the
Bramham Sailor, the Cleveland Galopin and
Cottager, the Brocklesby Acrobat, and York and
Ainsty Falstaff and Windsor, the Belvoir Pirate,
and others too numerous to mention. But there
the fox-hunter's reminiscences must cease. If he
wants to enjoy the hunting of the wild red deer,
he must forget all that he knows about fox-
hunting ; yet he will find that same knowledge of
fox-hunting obtruding itself occasionally, and need-
ing stern repression. In the first place, he is sure
to miss the excitement and dash which is attendant
on drawing for a fox, and from what he has read
he will be inclined to think that all stag-hunters
have to do is to go and put up the harboured stag

38

THE SPORT OF KINGS

as a hare is put up from her form. " You know he
is there ; go and find him," will be his feeling, and
he almost expects that the tufters will draw up to
him, bustle him about the covert till he has made
up his mind to break, and there is an end of that
part of the proceedings. Perhaps this may be the
case when the ideal prevails. When the real pre-
vails, when scent is nil — as it was on the occasion
of my visit — something very different takes place.
Let me try to give some explanation of what
stag-hunting is like on a bad scenting day, and pace
my bruising friends, of the beauties which it presents.
The fixture was Exford, and they proceeded, I think,
to Dunkery, where a stag had been harboured. The
covert — or, perhaps, I ought to say the range of
coverts — is V-shaped, and as Anthony proceeded
to draw with his tufters, a hind, and a remarkably
fine one, trotted leisurely away within a couple of
hundred yards of him ; three or more hinds were
seen afterwards, but Cervus major remained unseen.
Then, with a couple and a half more tufters added,
Cutcombe Covert was tried, and hounds spoke, and
hinds were seen, and once I saw a stag, but this
was when hounds were over at the Timberscombe
side. At the Timberscombe side of the road there
was some very pretty tufting, but to a man used
to fox-hunting there was a lack of the cry of the
full pack, which was occasionally puzzling. As I
galloped up the road in the wake of the harbourer,
I was much struck by the quickness with which he
discerned, as he galloped along at top pace, that
the stag had crossed the road. To pull up his
horse, and say, " He has gone in here," was the work
of a moment, and it was an exhibition of skilled
woodcraft which could not fail to appeal to any one

WESTWARD HO ! 39

who appreciates the beauties of that fine art. In the
meantime we were informed that the stag which
had been harboured at Dunkery had gone away,
and all possible haste was made to get to the place.
" Forty minutes gone," was the announcement
when the Master appeared with the pack. Such
a case would have been hopeless had a fox been
before us, and that I had my misgivings I must
own. To see the way hounds worked over the moor
was charming, and this in spite of the fact that a
large field unduly pressed on them. They hunted
along, not at any great pace it is true, but still
keeping well to their work, to Horner Hill and
Cloutsham, and finally they had to go home with-
out blood.

It was a moderate day's sport, yet a most
enjoyable one withal. If the dash of foxhounds
breaking covert with a fox was wanting, as of
necessity it was, to make up for it there was the
wonderful steadiness of the tufters, who were easily
turned from the hinds, and that without any noise
of rating and whip cracking. The handiness of
the tufters impressed me much, and I was equally
charmed with the admirable manner in which the
hounds worked the stag across from Dunkery to
Horner. All that was wanting to make a good
run was a little better scent and a better start.
The cunning of the stag was exemplified in a
remarkable manner, and that alone was worth
going a long way to see. The keeper was emphatic
in his assertions that the stag was in a certain corner
of the covert. Yet carefully as Anthony drew
round the thicket, no tufter could own that he was
there, and though the keeper went down to dis-
lodge him, he never budged an inch. Then for

4-0 THE SPORT OF KINGS

two hours he lay close, within a few hundred, a
very few hundred yards of a large crowd of horse-
men, who were smoking, lunching, and chatting,
and otherwise making a noise. When he was
ready, and not till then, he roused himself from
his lair, but once he made a start he made the best
use of his time, and being well halloaed at he kept
travelling.

In one other particular I must advise my fox-
hunting friends to forget their fox-hunting ex-
periences. Festina lente is a good motto for those
who ride with the Devon and Somerset, and a
masterly inactivity on occasion is the sure road to
ultimate triumph. If a man were to act on the
same lines as if he were riding to foxhounds, he
would find that his horse had put in a good day's
work before the real business of the day had begun,
with the result that he would find himself " left " at
the finish. For the wild red deer travel far and
fast, and there is not often a chance of a second
horse in a run.

The best plan for a man to adopt is to select
some well-known native as his pilot, make up his
mind to always keep him in sight — no easy matter,
bien entendu^ if there should be a scent ; and then
if, when at the end of from ten to twenty miles
through some of the loveliest scenery in the United
Kingdom, he is not satisfied that he has been more
than repaid for his trouble, his case must be put
down as a hopeless one. And one thing is certain,
if he does appreciate what he sees, he will want to
have a repetition of it, and that at an early date.

When Dr. Collyns wrote his charming book
stag-hunting in the West had sunk to a somewhat
low ebb. Poaching and deer -stealing had done

WESTWARD HO ! 41

much to bring down the head of red deer on
Exmoor, and it was feared by many good sports-
men, Dr. Collyns amongst the number, that the
wild stag would soon be but a memory. And
indeed at the time that Dr. Collyns wrote such a
state of things did not appear at all unlikely. In
1855, hounds were only out twenty -five days
killing two stags and two hinds, and this seemed
about what there was to spare, and though they
never fell to so low an ebb as this again, in the
years in which Dr. Collyns was preparing his great
work for the press, viz. in 1861 and 1862, they
hunted little, and deer were scarce. In the former
year they were out twenty-eight times, killed four
stags and four hinds, and took and saved one hind
and one young male deer; whilst in 1862 they
hunted twenty -seven days, killed six stags, and
saved one stag and three hinds. During the
Mastership of Mr. Bisset, which lasted from 1855
to 1890 — a period of twenty-six years — the head
of deer gradually increased, and had Dr. Collyns
lived till Lord Ebrington took the horn, he would
have had his heart gladdened by a long season of
eighty-nine days, with a record of twenty-three
stags and fifty-seven hinds, as well as ten other
deer killed at the end of it.

And now, four hundred years after we have
a record of the first Master of Staghounds who
hunted Exmoor exactly as Exmoor is hunted at
the present day, there is a larger head of deer on
the moor than there has been at any time during
the century. It shows how sporting a spirit
exists in the far West, and what good fellows are
the farmers of Devonshire and West Somerset,
that the century should go out with a better head

42 THE SPORT OF KINGS

of deer in the country than there was when it came
in ; for the red deer, if he does not molest the
hen roosts or run off with a newly dropped
lamb, plays fine havoc with a field of turnips and
a field of corn or an orchard ; your stag being an
especially dainty feeder, and the best of everything
good enough for him. Two days a week was
what had to satisfy stag-hunters till 1878, since
which date, save from August to October 1883,
when they hunted four days a week, they have
hunted three days a week. And yet, though the
country has been diligently hunted, deer have
increased to such an extent that Sir John Amory
has started another pack with which to hunt the
outskirts of the country, and excellent sport he
showed last season, which was his first. And still
the deer increase, so Mr. Sanders has determined
on hunting four days a week this season, taking
the horn one day himself.

Never, perhaps, since the Devon and Somerset
Staghounds were known by that name, has the
general outlook been so bright as it was at the
opening of the season of 1898. A popular Master,
a skilful huntsman, an excellent pack of hounds,
visitors and natives keen on the sport to a man,
and everywhere plenty of deer — everything indeed
looks couleur de rose. Yet is there a cloud, " a little
cloud, no bigger than a man's hand," but one which
may grow till it blots out stag-hunting altogether.
A syndicate of Welsh speculators propose to con-
struct a light railway from Minehead to Lynton,
which will run right across Exmoor, and which
will render stag-hunting impossible. They abso-
lutely talk about making a station at Waters'
Meet. And no one wants the railway ; everv

WESTWARD HO ! 43

landowner, save one, is opposed to the scheme ;
and the farmers know well enough that any small
benefit which will accrue to them from a slightly
accelerated traffic will be more than counterbalanced
by losing their best customers, the men who come
down yearly to the West to enjoy a sport such as
no other country but our own can show, and
which for four hundred years — ay, and more — has
gladdened the hearts of the brave men of the
West, without any practical interruption.

Curiously enough, the inquiry into the light
railway scheme, the chief result of which will
be the flooding of Devonshire and Somersetshire
with Welsh miners from the Rhondda valley —
a questionable benefit indeed — will be held on the
day when the season will open at Haddon. Let
the scheme be opposed with all the power of two
united counties, say I, and I cannot better conclude
than with Dr. Collyns's noble words : " I trust,"
says he, " that ' the nobilitie ' and youths of the
West of England will follow the steps of their
forefathers, that every man will, to the best of his
power, use his influence in preventing the noblest
of English sports falling again into desuetude,
and that if the time come when it should be
necessary to use exertion in order to prevent the
discontinuance of sport which it has been the pride,
the boast, and the pleasure of the good men and
true of North Devon and Somerset for many a
century past to have enjoyed, those who have the
power of doing so, and their number is not small,
will, with heart and soul, combine to give their
support to the maintenance of the hounds and
the preservation of the deer, and show by acts
unmistakable, and not by words merely, that they

44 THE SPORT OF KINGS

do in all sincerity wish ' Prosperity to Stag-Hunt-
ing'" And bear this in mind, that the day
which sees cut the first sod of a railway to cross
Exmoor will see the beginning of the end of the
chase of the wild red deer.

CHAPTER VI

REPLENISHING THE STUD

Offering the benefit of a little personal experience to men,
who being circumstanced like myself, and deeply engaged in
. . . important pursuits, might be glad to receive it.

Caveat Emptor, The Adventures of a Gentleman in
Search of a Horse.

Opinions vary considerably as to what is the best
time for a man to look about him to fill up the
breaks made in his stud by the wear and tear of
past seasons. Of course, the easiest way of an-
swering an important question like this is to say
to the tyro, buy a horse as soon as ever you see
one that is like suiting you. But that is just
where the difficulty comes in. You may think a
horse very like your purpose during the summer
months, you may buy him, and when November
finds the season again commenced, you may find
that, for your purpose, the horse on which you
prided yourself so much is worthless. There are
men who will hold out that the end of the season
is the best time for a man to buy a hunter, that
then he has lost all the fat which hides a multitude
of faults, and that his legs, if they have any in-
herent weakness, will then show it. All of which
contentions have much to recommend them, but

46 THE SPORT OF KINGS

unfortunately there is a weak place in the advice.
In the first place, there is a long summer's keep to
pay for, which adds considerably to the apparently
reasonable price that the horse may have cost at
first. Then, again, there may be such a thing as
the horse having been carefully nursed all the year,
that what you think are only trade marks are
something worse ; and that when your horse
comes into work you find that he is simply a
lame one, and for your purpose worth about an
eighth of what he cost. So, unless a man is a
good judge, and even if he be a good judge,
it is scarcely wisdom to buy at the end of the
season.

What to buy and where to buy it are naturally
questions which present themselves to a man who
is in want of horses, and perhaps the first question
is the one that had best be answered first. To
begin with, a man should make up his mind at
once whether he intends to try to hold his own
with the flyers of the Hunt with which he is about
to cast in his lot, or whether his ambition is of a
milder order, and he only requires an animal that
will show him a fair amount of sport without
making any strenuous effort in the way of gallop-
ing and jumping. Then, having made up his
mind as to his requirements, and as to the price
he intends to give for the horses he wants, let him
go to some respectable dealer — there are plenty
in any hunt of note — and say what he wants, and
when he wants it. And there is no better time
than September for a man to make his wants
known, for he will be able to tell, in the few
gallops which generally take place in October,
whether the horse he has bought is like suiting

REPLENISHING THE STUD 47

him or not, and he will be able to get on friendly
terms with his new purchase before the galloping
begins in earnest. One thing must be firmly
impressed on the would-be-buyer's mind, and that
is, under no circumstances to buy a horse that is
not suited to the country. A horse that would
be a safe conveyance over Leicestershire or North-
amptonshire would prove a very sorry mount in
the moors and hills which abound in the Cleveland
and Captain Johnstone's countries.

There are some men who go about the country
saying that hunting men should buy their horses
of farmers, and that if they do not do so they are
acting unfairly to the men over whose land they
ride. With this opinion I emphatically disagree,
and in the long run there is no pecuniary saving
by so doing. Indeed, I am convinced that for a
man who wants to hunt for amusement, it is a
mistake to buy his horses from a farmer, and
that sooner or later he will regret it. To begin
with, it is seldom that a farmer has a horse that
has come to age. Most farmers' horses are picked
up at four years old, or at five years old at the
most, and my experience of hunting tells me that
no horse under six years old is fitted to carry a
man a long day's hunting, week after week, with-
out missing his turn, and probably breaking down
in the long run. Of course, there are farmers
and farmers, and I know of many farmers whose
farming is subordinated to their dealing in hunters.
To these men you can go without fear. But the
farmer who has but two or three horses of his
own is the man to avoid. It is highly improbable,
though he be a good man over a country himself,
that his horses will carry you with hounds with

48 THE SPORT OF KINGS

that degree of comfort that you require, and there
is no sending a horse back to a farmer. You are
also more likely to get a misfit at a farmer's, and it
is pretty certain that you will never get a bargain
at the farmer's hands, whatever the dealer may do.
I am not one of those, however, who blame the
farmer for charging more to a private customer
than he does to a dealer, for the private customer
is a man who only comes once in a way, and does
not take all the horses, good, bad, and indifferent,
which the farmer breeds, as the dealer generally
does, if they are not too bad. And it is to this
very fact that I attribute the fact that a man
oftener gets a misfit when buying from a farmer
than when buying from a dealer. The dealer has
his money locked up in horses ; the farmer breeds
one or two, and does not care much whether he
suits his customer or not. The dealer, on the
contrary, is anxious that his customer should have
the animal he wants ; if he pleases him, he knows
that it will lead to increased custom. One thing
which makes the dealer's horse a better one for
the average hunting man to buy is that he is
ridden by many different men, he gets accustomed
to different handling, and he soon gets to accommo-
date himself to fresh riders as a consequence of his
training and his practice. Then there is the great
factor of being suited at once. I take it that no
man who hunts for pleasure wants to spend his
time rough-riding a raw or unformed horse, or
re-breaking one that does not come nicely to his
hand. With most dealers there is no difficulty on
this point. If the horse does not suit they will
take him back and furnish another. Of course,
they will charge something for so doing, but the

REPLENISHING THE STUD 49

privilege is well worth what is charged for it, and
unless a man is very full of whims, he seldom has
to send a horse back if he goes to a good dealer
to begin with.

Notwithstanding the growing popularity of
auction sales, I cannot recommend them, unless
some well-known stud happens to be going up
for sale, and then the prices are sure to be ex-
travagant. It sometimes happens, however, that
a man may know something about a horse which
is sent up to the Repository, and then he may be
able to make a bargain, but generally in such a
case the value of the horse is known to more
than one. Indeed it is as well to avoid all
thoughts of getting a cheap bargain when you
are buying horses, and the apparent cheap bargains
often turn out bitter disappointments. In con-
clusion, I may say that during a pretty long
experience, I have bought horses from dealers,
farmers, and once, and once only, at an auction.
The latter was one of the most satisfactory pur-
chases I ever made, but had other people known
the horse and as much about him as I did, I
should have had to give at least ^50 or ^60
more for him than he cost me. The result
of my experience is that I shall, for the future,
buy my horses of dealers. All my transactions
with dealers have been satisfactory, for if the
horse I got was not quite what I wanted, I soon
got one that was, and the only unsatisfactory
deals I have had have been with farmers, men
who, like the Heathen Chinee, were child -like
and bland.

Note. — Lest my remarks respecting buying hunters
from farmers may be misunderstood, I have thought it

E

So THE SPORT OF KINGS

advisable to reprint a criticism on the article when it
originally appeared and my reply to it. I need scarcely
say that I never heard any more of those hunters in
farmers' hands.

I see in your last issue that a gentleman signing himself
" Marmaduke " is strongly against sportsmen buying their
hunters from farmers ; in fact, he almost makes the poor
farmer out to be a rogue. I think this is very hard upon the
fanners, as they have little enough to turn the penny upon —
and how does it happen that a man like Stokes, of Market
Harbro', maintains that the best horses that cross Leicester-
shire are bought in the North of England, and I can prove
that nine out of ten are bought from farmers, as Mr.
Stokes keeps an agent in Newcastle-on-Tyne, who goes
through the three northern counties buying up all the best
animals. And " Marmaduke " also states that people should
eschew horses sold at sales. How does it come that Irish
dealers sometimes average from .£80 to £100 on from ten to
twelve horses, both at Tattersall's and York ? If the people
were taken in, does he mean to say that they would come
back a second time? I fear " Marmaduke's" experience in
horseflesh is very limited and narrow. There are as good
men farmers in the North as there are in the shires, for all
they do not wear stays. Glendale.

Though I do not, as a rule, reply to letters of
such a personal nature as that which appears over
the signature of " Glendale " in your last week's
issue, I will break through my rule for once. In
his remark about "wearing stays," I suppose
" Glendale " attempts to be funny. He succeeds
in being vulgar, and I must congratulate him on
his success. During my " limited and narrow "
experience of thirty-seven seasons with hounds, I
have bought one or two horses, as well as bred
them, and I have had more opportunities of
becoming acquainted with the trade in hunters in
all its bearings during the last five-and-twenty
years than falls to the lot of most men. I do not

REPLENISHING THE STUD 51

" almost make the poor farmer out to be a rogue,"
I neither say nor imply such a thing, and my only
reply to the criticism is, if the cap fits, wear it.
But, in spite of my critic, I repeat that I advise
the man who wants a hunter to go to a dealer
instead of a farmer. " Glendale " boasts about
the good horses there are in Northumberland.
May I ask how many six-year-old horses there
are in farmers' hands, horses well bred and up to
weight, that know their work, and are fit to put
into the hands of a man to take to work at once ?
I know something about the horses in Northum-
berland, and I venture to say that of horses such
as I mention there are very few, if any ; the
country has been too well scoured for that. If
there are any, and " Glendale " will tell you where
they are, I will either come or send an agent to see
them, and if they are good ones they will be
bought. I take it a man wants a hunter, a horse that
can carry him across country, and come out in his
turn, not a four-year-old or five-year-old ; and if
a farmer — perhaps it is necessary again to say that
by "farmer" I mean a man who only has a horse or
two, and who does not devote a large proportion
of his time and capital to the making of hunters
(such a man I call a dealer) — has a horse older
than that now, when the competition is so keen,
and the country is so scoured for horses by " men
like Stokes," it is pretty safe to assume that there
is a good reason for his not being sold. I
have bought many horses of farmers as three-year-
olds, four-year-olds, and sometimes as yearlings,
and even foals, some of which have turned out
well, some badly, but as I was not writing to men
who buy horses to graze or improve, but for men

52 THE SPORT OF KINGS

who want horses to work, and come out regularly,
taking the rough with the smooth, I naturally did
not class them as hunters.

It does not require any special knowledge to
be able to teach " Glendale " something about
those Irish horses which have averaged ^80 to
^100 at auction sales. I do know how many
of the horses that have been sold at the various
Repositories have finished, and that, I take it,
is the criterion of a hunter's capabilities, and not
the price he brings. But " Glendale " assumes
otherwise, and he must be right.

Of the Irish horses that have been sold at one
Repository during the last few years, I can safely
say that there have not been half a score that have
given satisfaction to their purchasers. Many of
them were decidedly of the harness type, and made
good match horses, and for this purpose many
were bought. In one case, where some useful and
well-bred horses were bought at a long price, the
purchaser got scarcely any hunting out of them the
first season, and none at all before Christmas, for they
went to pieces directly they were put into work,
and I could multiply such instances almost inde-
finitely. My own experience of buying hunters —
i.e. made horses from farmers — is, as I have
already said, rather a painful one. Two out of the
three were bottled-up horses. One of them I rode
two or three times, the other I hacked once. The
third horse was as good a bit of horseflesh as a
man need wish to have, and he had not gone to
the dealer's because he was not fashionable enough
in appearance. But unfortunately he had been
messed about by the farmer's men, and when he
got into a crowd he was rather rash. His rashness

REPLENISHING THE STUD 53

caused me a fall at a place he ought to have walked
over, and the consequence was three months on
my back. A season's steady riding and quiet
handling worked wonders, but the old impulsive-
ness was shown at times, and even with horsemen
a long way above the average there were times
when that horse was a handful. I think it would
have been better for me to have given a dealer a
good profit on that horse, if the dealer had got
him before he was spoiled by the farmer's man ;
" Glendale " doubtless thinks otherwise.

I don't care to say anything more about myself,
but you, sir, know that I hunted with between
thirty and forty packs of hounds in my time, and
that I know a good deal about most of the countries
I have hunted in. I have perhaps during my
time done more for the farmer than " Glendale,"
both with my pen and in other and more practical
ways, and no man sympathises with the tenant-
farmer in the difficulties with which he has to
contend more than I do, but that by no means
implies that I am to advise a man to buy from
a farmer what my " limited and narrow experi-
ence " teaches me will not suit him. I have
nothing more to add, except that I shall reply to
no further letters on this subject, and that I am
anxiously waiting to know where these good
hunters are.

CHAPTER VII

THE LAST MORNING EXERCISE

This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.

Antony and Cleopatra.

Full many a glorious morning have I seen.

Shakespeare, Sonnet XXXIII.

If a man be fond of hounds and possessed of
ample leisure, there is no better way in which he
can spend his mornings during the month of
August and the early part of September than in
joining hounds when they are out for their " long
exercise." Indeed, if his leisure be scarce it is well
worth his while to make an effort to have at least
one or two mornings' exercise with the pack of
which he speaks lovingly as "our hounds." For
a man who loves a country life there is ever some-
thing new to see in those country rides in the early
hours succeeding the dawn of an August morning,
the sun shining brightly but without the intensity
which inconveniences later in the day, the cobwebs
in the hedges, the belated hare wandering back to
her form, the busy and ubiquitous rabbit scuttling
hurriedly out of the way of the horse's feet as you
ride along the bridle road, a bridle road which
recalls so many happy memories that you fall into

LAST MORNING EXERCISE 55

a reverie as your horse jogs along, a reverie only
to be broken by the playfulness on the part of your
horse as he hears the note of the horn you both of
you love so well, which announces that you have
arrived at the place at which you had arranged to
meet your friend the huntsman and his charges.

Having joined forces you jog along through
bridle roads and across patches of common, and
as this there is no time so good to get to know
the entry and to renew acquaintance with the
veterans of the pack. The huntsman is always
cheery on these occasions, and perhaps has more to
say about the mystery of his craft than he has at
any other time. Indeed, speaking personally, I
think I can say that I have learnt more about
hounds and hunting, and foxes and their ways,
during these morning rides than at any other time.
When a huntsman is hunting, his thoughts are too
much occupied with the business of the day to be
very communicative, but on these occasions he has
his hounds thoroughly broken, and he is, as it
were, open to the enjoyment of the pleasures of
memory and the pleasures of hope at the same
moment. Who, under these circumstances, would
not be communicative, especially when he has a
kindred spirit to take into his confidence ? So the
man who joins the huntsman on these fine summer
mornings, thereby gaining his favour in a way
those who only turn out in all the panoply of the
chase on the first of November are little aware,
gets many a wrinkle which will serve him in good
stead when leaves are fallen and the country is
rideable, if he be a man of observation and memory,
which I take leave to think will be the case, or
otherwise he would not be there.

56 THE SPORT OF KINGS

After passing along country roads and bye-
vvays for some time, a bit of open ground is
reached ; it may be the purple moorland, or it may
be a well-wooded gentleman's park. " We'll let
them have a look at a hare or two," says the hunts-
man to his whippers-in, and forthwith you are
jogging over the country, hounds spreading well
about and the whippers-in on the alert for riot.
Up bounces a bumping old hare out of her form,
to run, after the manner of her kind under such
circumstances, the gauntlet of the whole pack.
That, you might think, if you had never been out
with your huntsman -friend before, would be a
moment of anxiety for him. But nothing of the
sort ; he knows his are not the hounds to run riot,
and that his youngsters are so well bred and so
well drilled that even the wildest of them that has
been well entered to hare when out at quarters, will
take no notice of the riot that is in front of them.
So the old hare bounces along, almost under the
very noses of the hounds, and the old hounds take
no notice of her whatever, as becomes their years
and their wisdom, whilst the young ones do nothing
more than look at her in idle wonder, not unmixed
with good-natured contempt, as who should say,
" We have better and nobler quarry than you to
follow." For it is one of the attributes of a well-
bred foxhound, descended from a line of disciplined
ancestors, that when those who have to do with
him have obtained his confidence he is soon taught
to avoid riot, especially if quiet methods are taken
with him, and there is not an overabundance of
noisy rating and whipcord.

A special pleasure which attaches to these rides
is the corky way your horse carries you. Gay and

LAST MORNING EXERCISE 57

light-hearted, and getting his hocks well under
him, he moves in such gallant style that you are
positive he is a better horse than he was last season.
Surely this cannot be the horse that gave you such
a cropper at the end of the fast twenty -five
minutes from Holly Berry Gorse last November.
Surely this is not the same animal that was as
" crisp as a biscuit " that time they rattled a stout
hill fox from Mudbury Slack to Slowley-on-the
Hill, and that you had to get to a hospitable
farmer's there to nurse him up a bit ere you could
get him home. You are sure that he is a much
better horse than he was then. Well, may you be
right ! Probably you are both wiser than you were
last season, and your horse will know better than
to "rush" a big fence when he is a little blown,
whilst you will know better than to bustle him
through heavy plough and against the hill after
you have gone for forty minutes at top pace.
Here's luck to the pair of you !

A hospitable farmhouse is now at hand, and
there are a couple of puppies out at walk, so a call
is made to see how they are getting on, and the
farmer, as good a sportsman as ever buckled on
spur, is eager to ask what the prospect is, and
" talk hunting," notwithstanding that it was all
talked over with him last market day, and his wife,
on hospitable thoughts intent, brings out eatables
and drinkables that are welcome after the long
ride, and talks with pride of the cup she won with
the puppies last season, and prophesies that she will
win again with Remus or Rarity, or both of them,
who are having a fine game with an old duster,
which they are speedily rendering useless for any
purpose.

58 THE SPORT OF KINGS

And now the ride is over, hounds are nearly
back at their kennel, and you have spent a pleasant
morning and added to your knowledge of the
sport of kings. You have also done something
towards putting your horse, and, equally im-
portant, yourself, into condition. It is the last
long exercise, and as you part from the huntsman
where your roads separate, he draws up for a
moment to say, " I'm going to take 'em up to
Slowford Marshes on Wednesday morning, if
you've nothing much to do. I might just run 'em
through the covert to see if there's a litter of cubs
there. I shall be there at 5 o'clock."

CHAPTER VIII

CUB-HUNTING

It is, I think, a very satisfactory sign that cub-
hunting is increasing in popularity, and certainly
the cub-hunting fields of the present day are much
larger than was the case a few years ago. I am
not alluding to cub-hunting fields in October,
mind. Then cub -hunting is a very different
matter from what it is in August and September,
and it may be fairly laid down that a man who will
get up at 4 a.m. or earlier in order to ride ten or
a dozen miles to meet hounds in either of those
months when a gallop is almost out of the question
either knows something about hounds and hound
work or is anxious to learn.

" You are the best fellow in the world," I once
heard a master of hounds say to one of his first-
flight men ; " you are a good sportsman and don't
override hounds, but your knowledge of hunting
is absolutely nil." That remark often occurs to
me when I hear the young enthusiast, full of the
" madness of the gallop, forty minutes on the
grass," without a thought to hounds that have
shown him sport ; or when I hear the same
enthusiast criticise an experienced huntsman be-
cause he will hunt his fox instead of galloping

6o THE SPORT OF KINGS

somewhat aimlessly about a country as the manner
of some is, and so affording the said enthusiast
plenty of opportunity for the bruising in which
his soul delights, and which to him is the be-all
and the end-all of fox-hunting. Now, I do not
wish to be misunderstood. I do not wish to
imply that because a man is a hard rider and
prefers a fast burst to walking a fox to death, he
therefore knows or cares nothing about hounds.
Nothing can be farther from the fact, but I would
point out to those hard riders who do not under-
stand hounds and hound work that their enjoy-
ment of the most brilliant and fastest gallop they
were ever in would be much enhanced were they
capable of seeing the niceties of hound work. For
these niceties are to be seen in the fastest gallop
as well as in the slower hunting run, only it is
difficult always to get into a place to see them.
That, however, is a detail which may best be left
to them ; they will no doubt try to solve the
difficulty to their satisfaction. But there is another
aspect of the case, and one that will obtrude itself.
The time will come to all of us, sooner or later,
when nerve will give way and advancing years will
no longer permit us to join or attempt to join in
the first flight. Then there is the choice of two
evils : giving it up altogether, or, by means of a
good stout cob, knowledge of the country, and
skill in woodcraft, seeing plenty of fun and the
death of many a good fox. Which is the prefer-
able course ? I think the question scarcely admits
of argument.

A gentleman whom I have the privilege of
knowing intimately, and who is now advanced in
years, has got more fun out of hunting than any

CUB-HUNTING 61

man I know. He rode to hounds for fifty seasons,
and his nerve was good to the last, whilst when I
first knew him he was the hardest of the hard.
Then he gave up all at once, because with increas-
ing years he became rather lame, and he found
that riding increased his lameness and was injuring
his health. That it was rather a trial he admits,
but it was the right thing to do, and he did it.
None of his friends knew what it cost him, and
his interest in hunting was as keen as ever. But
then from his youth upwards he had been a hound
man, noting with the keenest interest the fine
instinct of that most sagacious animal the fox-
hound. On the flags he was and is a fine judge
of make and shape, as in the field he is a keen
critic of work. Neighbouring kennels are fre-
quently visited by him, and a rare treat it is to be
one of the party at such times. He also goes out
on foot or in a carriage whenever opportunity
presents itself, and it would astonish some of those
gentlemen who are forward riders to learn what he
sees. And best of all is the interest preserved in
the sport of sports, an interest which is not con-
fined to a record of the past, but which is keenly
alive to all that is going on in the present. It is,
I think, worth taking a little trouble to obtain a
knowledge which will enable you to enjoy your
favourite sport, even when age prevents you taking
the place you were once wont to occupy to your
own satisfaction.

Therefore it is that I strongly recommend all
those who have the opportunity to get as much
early cub-hunting as they can. I may be told
that the huntsman does not care to see many out
during the earlier days of the cub-hunting season,

62 THE SPORT OF KINGS

and perhaps there is something in that. But what
the huntsman really objects to is an excited,
holloaing, galloping crowd. When you go cub-
bing you should select your place and stick pretty
closely to it. By so doing you are sure to see
some of the fun either sooner or later, whilst you
will interfere with neither hounds nor hunt servants.
Lucky for you if the huntsman entrusts you with
a corner to prevent hounds getting away with an
old fox or to ride the cubs back into the covert,
and keep hounds out of any standing corn that
there may be about. He is very likely to do so
if you have accompanied him in his morning
exercise, and if he does you will have fine oppor-
tunities afforded you of seeing something of the
cunning of the animal who affords you so much
sport, and of the fine instinct and handiness of
hounds. You will also have some fun if cubs be
at all plentiful, and your horse will want to be in
good condition, for a well-grown cub will make him
gallop his best, albeit he does not appear to be
going very fast. If you be a man who observes
keenly there will not be a day you spend in cub-
hunting that you will not learn something fresh
about hounds and foxes, for it must be borne in
mind that in cub-hunting you have nothing else to
look after but hounds and foxes in the earlier days
of the season, riding being quite a secondary con-
sideration.

One of the great pleasures connected with early
cub-hunting is to get into a wood where the rides
are wide and clear from obstruction. It stands to
reason that the man who goes into the wood must
not be accompanied by a crowd, and that he must
remain perfectly quiet if he wants to see the fun,

CUB-HUNTING 63

But if, as is to be hoped, foxes are plentiful, he
will not have long to wait before the fun begins.
There, with ears pricked and stealthy stride, comes
the cunning old vixen, pausing for a moment ere
she crosses the ride into the covert again. She
knows well enough that her hereditary foes are
astir again, and it does not need the opening note
of old Warrener to warn her that it is time for
her to make herself scarce. So with a swing of
her brush she makes the best of her way into the
open, where for the present there is safety. Soon
a cub or two cross the ride, and then, driving on
in front, come some of your old friends and some
of your new ones. Old Melody, you are glad to
see, shows no sign of failing powers yet, and the
young Solomons, which you have looked upon
with such admiration when you attended the
huntsman in his long morning exercise, are dashing
to the front in a way which recalls the best form
shown by their famous sire. So you sit in the
ride, moving occasionally to another coign of
vantage, but never attempting to ride to hounds,
of course. And then they come round to you
again, and again you see the young Solomons
driving on in front. The cub is running short,
and hounds have overshot him, and probably your
young friends may make a wildish cast on their
own account. But Gleaner knows better, and,
hunting with the closeness which experience
teaches, he is soon on the line again. Then see
how the young ones score to cry again, and what
a cry it is, that of forty couples of foxhounds close
on their fox. Another sharp turn — -now they are
viewing him ; that hasty growl tells that they
have him, and in another second you hear the

64 THE SPORT OF KINGS

huntsman's whoo-whoop ! Then if the huntsman
is an old hand he will let the young ones have
their own way with their fox, and never attempt
to take him from them, and the sun now being
well up and hounds having killed a brace, he
will wisely go home, every one having seen some-
thing that has added to his knowledge of hunting
if he has looked on with an appreciative eye.
And it is astonishing how the knowledge thus
gained in the early summer mornings comes in
useful later in the season, and how much know-
ledge is gained by the man who spends as much
of his time as he can afford in rattling the cubs
about.

Cub-hunting is by no means to be entered upon
lightly and as of little consequence, for on the
way in which it is conducted will the sport of the
season in a great measure depend. It means some-
thing more than the mere getting hounds plenty
of blood. That is a detail, an important one it is
true, but still a detail, as the mere learning to read
is a detail in the education of the scholar. It is
the hound's natural instinct to hunt, and I believe
he would rather hunt a fox than anything else, in
which his instinct is very nearly allied to that
common sense of which we so frequently boast.
But he has to be taught to hunt the fox properly ;
to be self-reliant and at the same time not inde-
pendent and jealous ; to score to cry instead of
attempting a little hunting on his own initiative,
and to hunt truly without skirting or babbling.
The natural qualifications of the foxhound, the
drive and dash by which he is distinguished above
all hounds, fortunately make him an apt pupil if
he has an able master, and given plenty of foxes

CUB-HUNTING 65

he will know his work pretty well by the time the
regular season opens.

It must again be impressed upon the reader
that hounds do not go cub-hunting for the sake of
a gallop, though a gallop comes occasionally, and
I shall never forget a brilliant twenty-five minutes
with an old fox one bright September morning.
It was on the moors, and when that old dog fox
jumped up in front of hounds there was such a
screaming scent that it was impossible to stop them,
and very few of us were there when the old dog
fox was rolled over. But gallops like this are rare
in the earlier days of the cub-hunting season, and
men who are on the look-out for gallops such as
this are naturally regarded with scant favour by
huntsmen, who heartily wish them at home or
anywhere else save cub-hunting whilst the earlier
education of the young hounds is going on.

The object of cub-hunting is to teach the young
hounds to know what a fox is, to teach them to
run together, and to rely on each other and on
their huntsman. Such being the case, it stands to
reason that quietness is imperative on all who go
out on these early cub-hunting mornings. There
must be no wild galloping to and fro, no noisy
holloaing to attract the attention of hounds. As
the huntsman is exceptionally quiet himself on
these early mornings, so he has a right to expect
that all who go out will restrain their ardour, and
will assist him when asked to do so. Frequently
will they be asked to " hold up " the cubs, and in
doing that they will have plenty of opportunity in
exercising their vigilance, and they may have a
sharp gallop or two as well, as a resolute cub takes
some turning. A man who is deputed to this task

F

66 THE SPORT OF KINGS

should be careful not to leave his post hastily, or
he may find that the enterprising cub has taken the
opportunity of his absence on a voyage of dis-
covery, and made good his escape. If this should
be the case the huntsman may say nothing, but he
will think a good deal.

There is another aspect of cub-hunting which is
sometimes, especially in the earlier days of the
season, apt to be lost sight of. And this is that it
is intended to teach the young foxes to go as well
as to teach the young hounds to hunt them. For
this reason, then, it behoves those in authority to
be careful that " holding up " the cubs is not over-
done. A fox has a long memory, and after he
has been ridden back into covert a few times and
escaped, he is apt to rely on " devious courses "
instead of speed and pluck to save his life. That
there are some foxes spoiled as straight runners is
no doubt the fact where cubs are "held up" too
much, and for too long in the season. At the
same time it requires the greatest discrimination to
say when cubs should or should not be "held up."

Cub-hunting certainly tends to the survival of
the fittest as far as foxes are concerned, and if it is
judiciously conducted, not only will hounds know
their business when the ist of November comes
round, but foxes also will be ready to move at the
slightest warning that their enemies are in the
neighbourhood.

I know one huntsman who is particularly handy
during the cub-hunting season, long experience
and keen powers of observation enabling him to
tell almost by instinct the right moment at which
to let the fox break, and there are many through-
out the length and breadth of the land who have

CUB-HUNTING 67

equal aptitude. I have known him, after a hard
morning's work in the woods, say to his whippers-
in, " Let him go next time he tries to break."
And then after a scurry of about a mile in the
open, he would handle his fox. " It does hounds
more good to kill a fox in the open like this than
to chop half a dozen in covert," he would say,
" but the first fox you let go away like this you
must take care to kill."

Some people have an idea that a fox is very
easy to kill in covert. There cannot be a greater
mistake, as any huntsman of experience will admit,
when in the confidential mood.

CHAPTER IX

AN EARLY MORNING IN THE WOODS

Unfrequented woods
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.

Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Time 3.45 a.m., and a ten-mile ride in prospect
to meet hounds in one of their early cub-hunting
expeditions on a hot summer morning. The
waning moon, now only a crescent, shed a dim
light on the road as I started, but the stars were
bright enough. There is generally a little chill
before dawn, but such was not the case on the
morning of which I am speaking. The night had
been sultry almost to suffocation, and as I mounted
my horse at the hour above mentioned I had the
prospect of a long and hot ride before me. As I
jogged on through the little town which lay
between the trysting place and my home, the care-
ful gasman was beginning to put out the gas lamps,
though it was still far from being light. The
stones were soon left behind me ; and, by the way,
what a commotion you seem to make as you jog
through a town where no one, save that careful-
minded gasman, is astir. The stones, I say, were
soon left behind, and then came a ride through
pleasant country lanes. In the fields stacks of
golden grain loomed large in the half light, and

MORNING IN THE WOODS 69

the stillness of everything save the thud of my
horse's hoofs on the grass was marked.

After a while came the " solemnity of the dawn,"
and in the dawn came a damp fog, heavy, search-
ing, yet bringing no coolness with it. Cows were
now beginning to rise and stretch themselves, and
as I crossed the corner of a pasture a couple of
young colts galloped up, as if in wonder as to what
apparition it was that they saw through the fog.
Sheep lay still as I passed them, sure sign of a fine
and hot day. But of that, indeed, no sign was
required, for the increasing light showed my horse
to be steaming with perspiration, though he was in
good condition, and I had not ridden him fast.

The scene of the morning's operations was a
large woodland, consisting of several hundred acres.
It is perfectly level, and somewhat swampy in
places. There is plenty of thick covert in it, but
it is not all thick undergrowth, and the rides are
numerous and wide.

I was first at the trysting place, and I was
alone — alone, that is, but for the abundant animal
life which was all around me. For the wood was
just awakening ; within a few yards of me a jay
was merrily chattering ; rabbits, careless and un-
concerned about my presence, hopped about almost
within reach of my whip-thong ; the small birds
were singing cheerfully to welcome the day ; an
old hare came cantering and blundering along
towards me with a fatuity which would have been
fatal under other circumstances ; a hind trotted
quietly through the wood, stopping occasionally to
crop the leaves on her way, and finally crossing the
ride in which I stood with that easy swinging canter
which looks so slow till you come to ride beside it.

jo THE SPORT OF KINGS

As she crossed the ride she caught sight of me, but
she never increased her pace, and, quietly leaping
the fence, made off for the next covert. All was
still for a moment, and then came the startled cry
of a cock pheasant. What could have caused that
evident note of alarm ? What, indeed, save the
presence of that noble animal the fox, returning
homewards from his nightly foraging expedition !

And his quick ears must have caught the rattle
of a horse's hoofs coming at a smart canter along
the road, a sound which made my horse prick his
ears and snort. It is a whipper-in coming on to
his " corner," and ere many minutes elapse the
cheery "cry" of hounds running with a holding
scent told that the disturber had himself been dis-
turbed. There were but seven of us, all told, in-
cluding the huntsman and his aids, and as each
man had his allotted task and the wood is a large
one, it is not necessary to insist much on the fact
that there was no unnecessary galloping about the
rides. Yet how enjoyable such a morning is to
the man who can appreciate hound work. You
have been standing for half an hour or so, catching,
now and again, sounds of the " distant chase."
Now you hear hounds turn, they are rapidly
approaching you, the bracken stirs a little. Ah,
there he goes, over the ride, with ruddy fur and
gallantly carried brush, the little Red Rover who
may yet save his life by his cunning or his pluck.
He makes a short turn in the corner, hounds get
a view at him, some tail hounds meet him as he is
making the best of his way into the thickest of the
covert, surely they have him now. But no, the
courage — shall I say the traditions ? — of his race
come to his assistance ; he changes his tactics, and

MORNING IN THE WOODS 71

trusts to his pluck and speed. What cares he now
for the whipper-in's " tapping " or the crack of his
whip? He has got through the hounds somehow
and is off; let us drink his health, and the run
which he is sure to give us ere the budding trees
and hedges tell that the season of seasons is about
over.

Meanwhile hounds, or those which were after
the cub in question, have flung themselves back
into the wood. Not very far off they hear some
of their comrades running hard, and off they go
" scoring to cry." You may get away from your
various posts now as soon as you like, for the end
is not far off. They catch a view at him as he
crosses a bit of open ground, but he reaches the
thick covert again. But scent serves, they are
close at him now, and in another minute they roll
him over, after a pretty woodland hunt of an hour.
And so home, well content, as one Pepys hath it.
And during the hot ride home how the pleasures
of memory and the pleasures of hope contend for
mastery. Memory tells us of what a good point
that promising young hound Fencible made when
hounds checked at a ride, and how he ran at head
with the confidence of a veteran, and tells us more-
over of the way in which the cub broke covert ;
whilst Hope brings a bright vision before us of the
same cub, when skies are grey, crossing the fine
grass country which is near his home, with sixteen
couples of the bitch pack in his wake, and ourselves
as near them as circumstances will permit.

CHAPTER X

A NEW DEPARTURE

" We have often doubted whether Masters of
Hounds like seeing people out cub-hunting or not,
and we have about settled the question in our own
minds as follows, viz. that huntsmen or Masters
who go out early — at daybreak, for instance — are
glad to see people, because they are sure that none
but sportsmen will come ; whereas the mid-day or
afternoon performance favours all the idle, yammer-
ing, bothersome, chance medley customers of the
country." So, fifty years ago, wrote the versatile
author of Handley Cross, than whom no one had
a more intuitive knowledge of the component
parts of the hunting field and of the predilections
and prejudices of Master and huntsman and whipper-
in. I wonder what he would have said had he
lived to these times, and seen the cub-hunting
fixtures advertised in the daily papers.

I think there is not much necessity for me to
insist upon the fact that for the majority of people
who go out, cub-hunting is just a little bit of a
bore, and it is only men who take an interest in
hounds, who are enthusiastic admirers of them on
the flags and in the field, who feel at all keen about
those daybreak gatherings of which Surtees writes.

A NEW DEPARTURE 73

Many a good sportsman echoes the sentiments
expressed by the Squire of Hawbuck Grange :
" Cub-hunting is only poor sport to any but the
interested," said that keen sportsman. " It resembles
the tuning of the instruments for a grand let-off
concert, all of which is very right, necessary, and
proper, but a sort of thing which the public care
very little to hear." Yet more people go out cub-
hunting than ever, though it is very evident to a
keen observer that at least nine out of ten of them
care very little about it.

It is very curious that there should be such a
keenness to know where hounds will meet in the
earlier days of the cub-hunting season, and even
when the hour of meeting is an early one what a
large field will draw up ! More than once this
cub-hunting season I have seen during the month of
September and early in the morning, a field which
for numbers would not have disgraced December.
I think it would not be right to put this down to
an increase of knowledge of woodcraft, though
it may, perhaps, in some measure proceed from
the next best thing, namely, the desire of
knowledge.

But whatever may be the cause, there is evidently
during the last few years a great increase in the
numbers of those who go cub-hunting. And during
the last two years the cub-hunting meets — all except-
ing, perhaps, the very first — have in some countries
been regularly advertised. Even in the early days
of September, when six o'clock in the morning was
the hour of meeting, several hunts, instead of send-
ing cards to a favoured few, published their fixtures
for the benefit of all whom it might concern. Had
this not been done until the second week in October

74 THE SPORT OF KINGS

it might have been better understood by old-
fashioned sportsmen, some of whom, it is needless
to say, scarcely look upon the new departure with
favour. "For," says Beckford, "sport in fox-hunting
cannot be said to begin till October, but in the two
preceding months it is either made or marred," and
I have seen some as good gallops in October as in
January, though the country, of course, is rather
blind.

One reason, doubtless, for the advertising of
the cub-hunting fixture is the convenience of the
farmers. It would entail an immense amount of
labour to send post-cards to every one whose farm
was likely to be visited by the hounds, and even
then some one might be missed, and farmers natur-
ally like to have their stock out of the way when
hounds are in the neighbourhood, especially when,
as in the present day, hounds are attended by a
large field. So for the convenience of the farmers
perhaps as much as anything the cub -hunting
fixtures are advertised.

But those who wish to spend their early morn-
ings in watching the development of the young
hounds, and in getting their horses and themselves
fit for the more arduous work of the regular
season, should not forget that, even though fixtures
are advertised, cub -hunting is, after all, and
especially during its earlier stages, a private
business, and that they are there as privileged
individuals.

Therefore they should endeavour as much as
possible to assist the huntsman and the hunt
servants. They should carefully keep out of the
narrow rides in wood and covert, for if a hound
comes past them in a hurry it is quite likely that

A NEW DEPARTURE y$

their horse will kick him, and a hunt servant, gallop-
ing past in the execution of his duty, is by no
means safe. " Oh, but my horse won't kick," says
some one, in reply to whom it may be said that
the soberest hunter, when a good deal above him-
self, as at this time of the year he should be, is
never to be trusted. This is one thing which
people on steady-made hunters are constantly for-
getting, and " I never knew the old horse kick
before," won't mend a broken leg or bring a
promising puppy to life again.

I can remember the time when the early days of
cub-hunting attracted no attention at all, and when
few people put in an appearance till the middle of
October. In those days in the Hunt with which
my lot was cast about twenty cards were all that
were sent out, if so many. In later years I should
think, though I am not quite certain, that there
were at least a hundred, and now the cub-hunting
fixtures are advertised. The sending out of cards
in a large country no doubt entails a great amount
of labour on the huntsman, who generally has it
to do, and it is very easy to miss a man, and some
people are apt to be touchy when missed. Then
again, the farmers like to see the cub -hunting
fixtures advertised in their local papers. They
say that only the hunting men amongst them get
cards ; that they seldom know when hounds are
coming their way, consequently they cannot be
prepared for them by moving any stock which
might be in the immediate neighbourhood of the
coverts likely to be drawn. There is much in this
argument ; indeed, it is the only powerful argu-
ment in favour of a change of plan which I cannot
say that I like.

76 THE SPORT OF KINGS

In the first place, there is a change of principle
involved in the change of plan — a change of prin-
ciple with regard to the relations between the
Master and his field. When a card was sent out
there was a tacit understanding that the men who
went out cubbing went at the personal invitation of
the Master, and that they were therefore bound to
conform to all the rules and regulations of cub-
hunting, and refrain from captious criticism. But
once advertise the cubbing fixtures, and the world
at large is invited to take part in a business of
which few men understand even the rudiments. It
is like admitting the public behind the scenes of a
theatre, or like a conjuror showing his audience
" how it is done."

Every one knows that cub-hunting has its being
only for the education of hounds and foxes ; but
what every one does not know is the many minute
details which have to be carried out in order to
make that education complete and satisfactory.
To begin with, the coverts must be thoroughly
routed so that the huntsman may know where his
foxes are, a knowledge which will prove invaluable
later in the season when an afternoon fox is wanted
and there is not much time to spare. This, too,
teaches all the foxes to go away, and a wood or
covert should not be left so long as there is a fox
in it. Then it is essential that quietness should
prevail, that there should be nothing to take
hounds' attention away from what, though it is
our amusement, is to them the serious business of
life, and there should be no galloping about. Now
it is almost impossible for these conditions to
prevail when a promiscuous crowd is assembled at
the covert side, and consequently the education of

A NEW DEPARTURE jj

hounds and foxes can scarcely be expected to be in
as forward a state on the i st of November as could
be wished.

An instance occurs to my memory as a fair
illustration. Hounds were cubbing in the district
in question for the first time, and there was a large
field out, eager for a ride. The first covert that
was tried held plenty of foxes, and hounds hunted
it till there was not a fox left in it. They then
went to another wood, and before they had drawn
more than a third of it a fox went away. The
field was impatient, and there was a holloa, the
Master allowed hounds to go to it, and the conse-
quence was a nice little run, which was not needed,
and a missed opportunity for the education of
foxes, which was. The run concluded, they re-
turned to the same covert, and a similar circum-
stance took place, and I am quite certain that in
nearly half the covert there had never been a
hound. Now the huntsman has only a vague idea
as to what cubs he has in the covert, and if there
were any cubs in it, which seems probable, they
have yet to make their acquaintance with their
hereditary foes. As the huntsman said to me as
we were riding home together, " That's the worst
of having these big fields out cub-hunting. They
never consider hounds, and they want a gallop."
He might have added, " and sacrifice the sport of
the best part of the season for the gratification of
the moment."

But there is no mistake about it, for one
reason and another Masters will continue to
advertise their cub-hunting fixtures, and we shall
continue to have big fields out cubbing as soon as
hounds meet at a normal hour. But it is surely

78 THE SPORT OF KINGS

not too much to ask that those who come out to
assist in the education of hounds and foxes should
bestow a little thought on the requirements of
cub-hunting, and not be too keen for an early
gallop.

CHAPTER XI

THE LATER CUB-HUNTING

The cub-hunting season naturally divides itself
into two parts. From the middle of August to
the end of September, or perhaps to the first week
in October, the first part of the cubbing season
extends, and by that time the big woods will have
been well rattled, the young hounds will have been
well blooded and have got to know their work, and
the pack be ready for a fresh departure. Especially
will this be the case in an early season, when there
does not seem to be any likelihood of a return of
the hot droughty weather that makes hunting im-
possible except in the early hours of the morning.
There are various opinions as to the proper way in
which cub-hunting should be conducted, and some
men are very angry at a huntsman for killing a
brace or a leash of foxes in the course of a morning's
work in the big woods. I am inclined to think
that in many countries too few instead of too many
foxes are killed during the cubbing, and that as a
matter of fact something very like cubbing takes
place in them as late as December, when they get
into strong covert. An example of this occurs to
my memory. There was a certain big wood I
know well, which at one time was certainly not
rattled as it should have been for some cause or

8o THE SPORT OF KINGS

other ; perhaps the huntsman, who was a good
man, was too much inclined to listen to the critics,
who are broken-hearted if they see a brace of
foxes killed. At any rate he did not half kill the
cubs in this great woodland, and the consequence
was that when the regular season began there was
such a multitude of foxes in it that hounds kept
changing from one fox to another throughout the
day, and never got away. Then did these gentle-
men, and indeed every one, go home as soon as it
was mentioned that the wood was to be drawn.
A new man came, one that was most persevering
in killing foxes at all times and on all occasions,
a real " bloodthirsty huntsman," in fact. And here
let me remark that if you want an average of good
sport you must have a bloodthirsty huntsman and
bloodthirsty hounds, or you won't get it. Well,
the new man came, and he took his hounds
morning after morning into this wood, seldom
letting it rest a week, and he killed several brace
of foxes out of it. Of course the number of foxes
that he had really killed was magnified, but I
believe that he got hold of about thirteen or
fourteen brace. " Oh," said the grumblers and
critics, " this isn't sport. He chops foxes up like
rabbit catching. He has been here I don't know
how many mornings, and killed sixteen or seventeen
brace of foxes ; murdered them, sir ! murdered
them wholesale, and now there won't be a fox in
the wood." It is always advisable to keep a*sharp
look-out whenever a man tells you that foxes are
scarce, and at any rate I thought it best to have
" my eyes skinned " when hounds were drawing a
covert which had been so well rattled, and it was
well I did so, for no sooner were hounds put into

THE LATER CUB-HUNTING 81

this wood of many acres than a fox " went away,
he was not found," and was killed after running a
twelve-mile point. The men who were grumbling
instead of minding their work I need scarcely say
were left.

When October comes in, and in a forward
season a few days earlier, something like the real
thing may be indulged in, and if the country is not
too well stocked with foxes, must be indulged in if
the foxes are to hold out through the season. For
foxes certainly do not require so much bustling
about to make them face the open when they are
not thick on the ground, and the aim of cub-hunting
is to teach foxes what is required of them as well as
hounds.

The smaller coverts, too, are generally reserved
for the latter part of cub-hunting, and from them
there is always a better chance of getting a gallop.
So though the country is blind enough, and will be
until there comes some frost, men take to jumping
naturally, and falls are fewer in proportion than
they are later in the season. Sport, too, is generally
good in October ; better, I fancy, than it generally
is during the first few days of November, when
the falling leaf affects it considerably, especially
in covert. Some excellent runs have been en-
joyed, both in the shires and in the provinces,
during the latter days of October, and I can call
to mind one occasion when something very like
the run of the season took place in the middle of
that month.

Perhaps the reason that there are fewer falls in

the cub-hunting season may be due to the fact that

1 men do not ride quite so jealously as they do later

on, that there are not such large fields, and, con-

G

82 THE SPORT OF KINGS

sequently, not so much crowding and crossing at
fences, which are always productive of grief. An
experience of my own is worth relating. I was out
with a well-known pack, and as they chopped one
fox in covert, another brace went away. They
were cubs, so hounds settled on to one of them,
for no one thought of a cub facing the open so early,
and the first time he had been hunted. But the
cub was a bold one, and though he ran into an
adjacent covert, he did not dwell there, but ran
right through, and then a ring over the open which
lasted some twenty minutes. The country we
crossed was perhaps the trappiest I know. There
were very few gates in the line, the fences were
thick and strong, and drains, wide and deep,
abounded. In some places the drains were on
both sides the fence, and they were — as I need
scarcely add — full of grass and as blind as they
well could be. There were about forty people
out, and most of them on the ride. Yet there was
not a single fall, men kept well to the hounds, and
that though the pace was certainly sharp, especially
for the last ten minutes. I am quite sure I shall
not see that country ridden over again, when the
regular season commences, without there being
several falls ? Why is this ? In the first place, I
attribute the happy result to the fact that there
were no gaps and weak places, than which nothing
tends to make a horse more careless. Then again,
there was none of that crowding and cutting-in
which unfortunately prevails during the regular
season, and which is always, more or less, fraught
with disaster. And then there was plenty of room.
The crowding and cutting-in could be very much
lessened, even when large fields prevail, if men

THE LATER CUB-HUNTING 83

would study the art of riding to hounds a little
more closely. The fact that when the country
seemed most unfit for riding over there were
absolutely no falls is one which may well afford
matter for reflection for those rash spirits who take
little heed of how they progress so long as they
are progressing.

CHAPTER XII

WHAT TO WEAR

Buckskin's the only wear fit for the saddle,
Hats for Hyde Park, but a cap for the chase ;

In tops of black leather let fishermen paddle,
The calves of a fox-hunter white ones encase.

Egerton Warburton.

Tempore mutantur nos et mutamur in Mis, a saying
familiar to triteness, is as applicable to hunting
fashion as it is to everything else in this world,
and the fashion of the present day is as different
to that of the days in which Egerton Warburton
wrote, as was the fashion in his day to that when
our forefathers rode out in " broad-lapped coats,
top-boots, black cap, and a pigtail sticking out.'1
What to wear in the hunting field is a question of
no small importance, as health, comfort, and even
safety depend in no small degree upon well-fitting
garments. Time was, and that not so very long
ago, when breeches were made so tight that a man
could scarcely stir when he fell, and these were by
no means conducive to safety. They also were
sooner wet through than the roomy garments
which are now in wear. The single-breasted
frock coat which was the fashion in the beginning
of the century is now again the vogue, though in
a modified form, and shorter in the skirt, and a

WHAT TO WEAR 85

sensible coat it is, much to be preferred for com-
fort to the cut-away ; whilst as for the buttoned-up
"swallow tail," however men came to hunt in
such a coat is one of those puzzles of which the
solution is hard to find. They certainly look
smart enough, but on a wet day they afford no
protection to the thighs, and are cold and comfort-
Jess. Curiously enough, some good sportsmen still
stick to them, prompted thereto doubtless by some
happy association of ideas.

A hunting cap, save in some few countries, is
now never worn in the hunting field, the silk hat
taking its place. Probably the hat came into
favour through the fatal accident which happened
to the Marquis of Waterford, whose death was
supposed to be due to his having worn a cap.
That a cap is a very useful and comfortable head
covering in a woodland country, where a tall hat
is constantly getting into the way amongst the
branches, every one who has worn them will allow,
but concussion is supposed to be less liable to take
place if a hat is worn, and a man's neck is also
considered safer. I don't know that there is any-
thing in this. Poor "Bay" Middleton was wear-
ing a high hat when he broke his neck. After all,
I think the hat is worn for fashion's sake more
than for safety's, and many Masters of Hounds do
not like to see their followers wear the velvet cap.
I remember on one occasion when the Question of
the members of his hunt wearing caps tos mooted
to a well-known Master of Hounds, his^^ was :
" Well, gentlemen, there is no law to prevent you
wearing velvet caps if you like to do so ; only if
you do I shall put my men into white hats."

This seems to be the prevailing feeling amongst

86 THE SPORT OF KINGS

Masters of Hounds, so unless a man belongs to a
country where caps are the fashion he should con-
form to the wishes of the Master, and wear a high
hat. And this brings me to another part of the
subject — the wearing of mufti. There is no
doubt that mufti is exceedingly comfortable, and
the brown cords and black boots make a very
serviceable dress. But a man should no more
think of hunting in mufti after the regular season
sets in than he should think of going out to dinner
in a suit of dittoes. It is a mark of respect to the
Master to come out in the orthodox scarlet or
black coat and top-boots, the breeches being either
white or drab as is the fashion of the hunt with
which a man casts in his lot. One thing, how-
ever, is certain, white breeches are never wrong.
Leathers are not worn nearly so much as they
were at one time, and though they certainly are
the smartest of anything in appearance, and are
comfortable enough to ride in in fine weather,
they are miserable wear when wet through, and
are conducive on these occasions to severe colds,
rheumatism, and other ills.

It may be said with some degree of truth that
in the present day hunting men dress more with a
view to comfort than smartness, though doubtless
some young friends of mine will give a depre-
catory shrug to their shoulders when they read
this. Still, I think I shall have no difficulty in
maintaining my position. The roomy broad-
skirted frock-coat, though convenient and com-
fortable, and eminently the right thing in the right
place, especially on a wet day, cannot by any
stretch of the imagination be called smart, neither
can the roomy nether garments which are the

WHAT TO WEAR 87

object of so much solicitude, on occasion, to the
wearer. For I think most of my readers will bear
me out when I say that a pair of really well-cut
breeches is the scarcest article of attire in a man's
wardrobe.

Seldom in these days is it necessary to point
out the bad taste of coming out hunting in top-
boots and a coloured tie, or in top-boots and a drab
shooting-jacket. I have seen a man out hunting
in white cords, top-boots, a drab jacket, and a
velvet cap, and on my inquiring as to who he was,
I was informed that he was the groom of a nouveau
ric/ie, who did not subscribe to the hounds. Per-
haps the most eccentric get-up I ever saw was that
of a young man who was busily engaged in sowing
his wild oats, in which occupation he was eminently
successful. On one occasion he appeared at the
crack fixture of the hunt in which he resided
attired in dress trousers, scarlet coat, and the light
drab forage cap of a Volunteer officer in the early
days of the Volunteer movement. He was a
strange and wonderful sight. Is it necessary for
me to add that after a fox was found he was not
seen long ?

CHAPTER XIII

HUNT UNIFORMS

The appearance, what is it without the reality ?
And what were the reality without the appearance ?

Goethe.

When Carlyle undertook to expound the philo-
sophy of clothes he appears to have considered
the question of hunt uniforms as altogether
beneath his notice, and the question is one which
perhaps does not call for much discussion.
Still, it is a subject which may be worth a
moment's thought, were it only because, as a
good sportsman once said to me, it is a matter of
individual taste as to whether a man conforms to
les convenances.

And, after all, it is a matter of some importance
to all of us that the people with whom we consort
regularly should possess sufficient good taste to
conform to the ordinary usages of society, and
that they should not possess that vulgar self-asser-
tion which prompts some men to fly in the face
of the recognised custom simply because it is a
recognised custom.

But it is not of the costume of men in the
hunting field that I wish to speak on this occa-
sion, but rather of the dress uniforms of hunting
men.

HUNT UNIFORMS 89

And I am prompted to write about this the
rather that hunting men in the Shires have been
rather exercised in their minds — at any rate, some
of them have — by the fact that the Leicestershire
Golf Club has adopted the orthodox pink of the
hunting man for evening wear. Now, with all
respect to my golfing friends, I think it would
have been better that they should not have adopted
the dress uniform which has become to be con-
sidered as especially the fox-hunter's, at any rate,
in Leicestershire. Mind, I do not for a moment
wish to insinuate that the hunting man has a
prescriptive right to scarlet as a dress uniform,
but it has been so long identified with hunting in
the Midlands that it seems a pity that it should
become associated with any other pursuit in a
district where hunting reigns supreme. Scarlet
has of course been the uniform in which golfers
have appeared on the links in Scotland for more
than a century, and so, of course, the golf players
have in a certain measure custom on their side,
though I never heard of any special evening dress
being worn by a golf club until now.

There are some curious hunt uniforms, and
though none that I know of come up to the sky-
blue coat and canary-coloured shorts of the famous
Handley Cross Hunt, there are some which some-
how remind one instinctively of livery. The dark
green coat with scarlet collar, which was the dress
uniform of a certain hunt with which I am
acquainted, looked rather curious when it was
strange to one, though, when a scarlet silk facing
was added, it was becoming enough. Another
uniform which was much beholden to its silk facings
was a dark blue with white collar. I do not know

9o THE SPORT OF KINGS

whether the members of the Berkeley Hunt wear
the orange tawny as evening dress, but if they do
it will certainly have rather a peculiar effect, as
would the mustard - coloured coat and scarlet
collars and cuffs (or was it vice versa) of a now
defunct hunt had they ever been donned as
evening wear.

After all, I am inclined to think that this
matter of dress uniforms may be overdone, but it
is perhaps a sort of protest against the sombreness
of our nineteenth-century evening attire. For
instance, if a golf club, why may not a cricket
club or a football club, or even a chess club, have
its dress uniform ? It is only a matter of taste,
but fortunately so far we have been spared the
infliction.

The scarlet dress coat of the hunting man has
been so long in evidence that people had got used
to it, and it may be at once admitted that there is
nothing so becoming to the hunting man in an
evening, it being far before any of the elaborate
combinations of colours to a few of which I have
alluded. Different coloured collars or facings, of
course, are desirable in some cases to identify the
hunts to which the wearers belong, but a plain
scarlet looks the best in the end. What was the
origin of hunting men wearing scarlet evening dress
unless it was a survival of those days when hunting
men dined as they had hunted, in all the glory
of the war-paint, I am unable to say, but it has
been a long-established custom, and as such it is
entitled to respect.

Still, the evening hunt uniform has its abuses,
and it is for that reason, perhaps, that many
hunting men fight shy of wearing it. One or two

HUNT UNIFORMS 91

curious instances have come under my notice.
For instance, I have seen a man resplendent in
scarlet at a great function who only went hunting
in a carriage, and not often then, who did not
own an acre of land in the hunt, and who sub-
scribed the minimum subscription for the purpose
of attending the hunt dinner and wearing the
hunt uniform. Worse than that, there were
shrewd suspicions that foxes were safer anywhere
than on the shooting which he rented. When I
saw that individual it struck me that if I had been
wearing the hunt uniform myself the incongruity
of the situation would have been painful, for I
should have thought one of us was making a
mistake. I once knew even a worse case than this.
The gentleman in question, who was wearing his
smart coat for all the world as if he were a first
flight man, and whose conversation was of hunting
and nothing else — a rechauffe indeed of the sport-
ing papers — had never been on a horse, had not,
nor was he ever likely to have, an acre of land in
the country, and really took no interest in sport of
any kind. Evidently here was a case of bad taste
on some one's part — probably on the part of more
than one or two. So, though I must own that
I like to see the scarlet, black is perhaps the
safest wear, especially as the example of the
golf club may be followed by cricket and
football clubs, and a plethora of fancy colours
result.

CHAPTER XIV

A FEW HINTS
Just hint a fault. — Pope.

It is one of the most palpable things to a man
who keeps his eyes open to things which are going
on in the hunting field, that from utter thought-
lessness men are continually spoiling their own
sport, or causing needless friction, which brings
trouble on those who have the management of the
hunt to look after. And strange as it may seem,
this thoughtlessness is on the increase, and so much
so that in some countries the consequence is serious.
A very frequent cause of trouble begins on riding
to the meet. A cheery band of sportsmen take a
short cut through a covert, thereby saving, perhaps,
half a mile, or even less. They chatter away
heedlessly, and their noise arouses the vigilance of
the fox, who has already received a warning that
things are not quite as they should be from his
standpoint, by finding his earth closed. As soon
as he hears the voices of his noisy enemies he puts
this and that together, and quietly jogs away from
the covert to some snug place he wots of. Then
when the covert comes to be drawn an hour or
two afterwards, there is a stale line out of it ;
hounds run it for a field or two, and then it is

A FEW HINTS 93

given up as hopeless, and the huntsman's impreca-
tions, if not uttered above his breath, are deep and
hearty. For it is always the best foxes that lie
lightly, and very little will disturb a fox that has
been well hunted a few times. Equally fatal to
sport is the assembling of a crowd of foot people at
the edges of a covert in the day's draw. The
chattering, smoking, eager crowd give the fox
ample warning of what is going to happen, and by
the time the covert is drawn he has gone miles.
Several times have I seen what might have turned
out an excellent day's sport spoiled in the manner
indicated, and though I am not an advocate for
meeting at one place and drawing another country
altogether, I am bound to admit that Masters will
be obliged to adopt that plan if there is not an
improvement. I would point out that there is no
excuse for mounted sportsmen doing this very
unsportsmanlike thing, and a quarter of an hour's
earlier start, which would not entail any hardship
on any one, would entirely obviate any necessity
there might be for taking short cuts.

Another thing in which men seem determined

o

to do their uttermost to spoil their own sport is by
pressing hounds unduly when they check. No
sooner do hounds throw up their heads and the
huntsman takes hold of them to cast them than the
eager field follow him in his cast instead of stand-
ing still as they ought to do. And remonstrance
in many cases does but little good ; men stand
still, it is true, till the huntsman gets a few yards
farther off them, and then they move on just the
same, and the moment a hound hits off the line,
or they think that a hound hits off the line, they
are on the top of the pack, and cause in many

94 THE SPORT OF KINGS

cases the fox to be lost altogether. When hounds
check it is impossible to be too still or too silent,
for at these times the least thing distracts their
attention ; and above all things at a check the
huntsman should have plenty of room. This
seems so obvious that it becomes a truism ; yet
day by day and every day we see this rule in-
fringed, and it is no uncommon thing to find that
when the few leading men have pulled up at a
check they are passed by a crowd of eager sports-
men who have been riding behind them, and who
improve the occasion by riding into the middle of
the pack, and probably interfering with their
original cast.

A very reprehensible practice is larking. Neither
is it a very sportsmanlike one. Farmers and
landowners may heartily welcome the hunting man
and yet have a very strong objection to the making
of short cuts on a homeward journey. The one
is a legitimate pursuit ; the other is neither more
nor less than trespass of an indefensible character.
One of the best sportsmen I ever knew was exceed-
ingly angry if any one did any larking on his
property, and I shall never forget how he rated a
party of hunting men for larking over and break-
ing down his fences as they were going home from
hunting, after they had received hospitable enter-
tainment at his hands. Not very long ago I was
present when hounds met on a frosty morning.
The ground on the morning in question was
perfectly rideable, that is, the crust of the frost
broke through with the weight of the horses, but
the frost was so sharp that hounds' feet would
have suffered very greatly had they hunted, and
probably half the pack would have been lamed.

A FEW HINTS 95

As soon as ever it was determined not to hunt, men
began larking all over the place, and one party
started off, taking the country before them, jump-
ing the fences more or less cleanly, here perhaps
breaking a rail, there knocking through some dead
hedging, damage which would have been perfectly
legitimate had hounds been running, but which
certainly annoyed the occupiers of the land, and
justly so, in my opinion. And then the offence
was aggravated by the fact that the delinquents
were strangers, men who did not subscribe to the
hunt or own a yard of land within its limits. It is
probable that they did not do so very much harm,
but that is beside the question. It is also probable
that if the farmers had been politely asked, their
consent would have been freely given for the
larking gallop. But they were not asked, and as
an Englishman naturally resents a liberty, there is
not the slightest doubt that they would sooner
have seen a field of two hundred crossing their
land after hounds than the three or four men,
whose faces were unfamiliar and whose names un-
known, who took it upon themselves to ignore
their rights.

CHAPTER XV

WHERE TO HUNT

Play the good husband at home.

The Taming of the Shrew.

The great question with many sportsmen as the
season approaches is, " Where shall I hunt ? " and
the fitting answer to most of them is, " Hunt from
home." The young man's fancy, if his purse be
long and his courage be high, lightly turns to
thoughts of the Shires, and that he should wish
to have a season or two in the galloping countries
of the Midlands when in the heyday of youth is
only natural. Nor is there any reason why he
should not have his season or two in the Cream of
the Shires, and pit himself and his horses against the
best horsemen that the country or, for the matter
of that, that the world can produce. But as a
man's responsibilities increase it becomes his duty
to hunt in the neighbourhood of his own home if
any decent hunting can be got there, and this for
many reasons. To begin with, an ounce of practice
is worth a pound of theory, and if those whose
stake and interest is in a country go elsewhere
for their fox-hunting, preserve game strictly at
home, and don't care very much about the show
of foxes on their estate, they are doing infinite

WHERE TO HUNT 97

harm to the sport they profess to love, and I must
say it, at the risk of giving offence, their selfish-
ness is much more apparent than their sportsman-
like feeling. There is also a great charm in
hunting from home. A man's business and his
social ties and social duties then never fall into
arrears. He can get, provided that his home is
in a fairly good hunting country, the maximum of
sport at the minimum of cost ; he is enjoying
his sport amongst friends and neighbours, most of
whom he has known from his boyhood ; every
covert and every field brings to mind its pleasing
reminiscences of sport, reminiscences which never
pall, and as he rides home after some good run
he can chat with an old friend about a similar
run which took place over the country long years
before, talk over its similarities and its difference
from the run of long ago, and call to mind the
doings of more than one favourite hound, i.e. if
he be a man who cares for anything more than the
mere ride.

In most districts it is possible for a man to get
a day or two in the week with neighbouring packs,
and so well is the country hunted nowadays that
in many places a man can choose a fresh pack
every day. Speaking from a pretty long experi-
ence, I am convinced that a man sees the best
average of sport when he takes the bulk of his
hunting with one pack, taking the rough with
the smooth. On many occasions I have known
runs over the cream of the country take place
from the most unlikely fixtures, and I have seen
more than one wild hill fox found in his native
haunts and die in the open, as good 'uns should
do, after a good forty or fifty minutes over the

H

98 THE SPORT OF KINGS

best of the country. Think what misery it is to
miss such a run as this ! The best of the country
and no crowd ! ! I have a strong recollection of
missing the run of the season with the Cottesmore,
and though during the season in question I had
rather more good luck than usual for a man who
goes from one pack to another, I remember that
disappointment more keenly than all the good
sport I saw. For it was an opportunity which
may never occur again. The meet was Tilton
Wood, the journey a long one, and the morning
uninviting, so, quoting Lord Alvanley, I said, " Up

Tilton Wood, and down Tilton Wood, and d

Tilton Wood," and I hunted elsewhere, choosing
an open country, where there was no woodland.
We had a gallop ; the Cottesmore got right on
the back of a flying fox, ran him over the cream
of the Quorn country, and killed him in the open
at the end of an hour's fast gallop.

But though I advise my readers to hunt from
home, and as much as possible to identify them-
selves with one pack of hounds, sure as I am that
by doing so they will get the most fun out of their
hunting, I by no means wish to imply that they
should never pay a visit. Spend a fortnight or three
weeks in another country, the shires for choice,
if your fancy lies that way, or have an occasional
day with a neighbouring pack. Probably when
you have made elaborate arrangements, and put
yourself to some inconvenience to pay your pro-
mised visit you will find sport to be of the worst,
foxes bad to find, and scent worse than indifferent.
But even then you will have had the pleasure of
meeting your friends in another country, of com-
paring notes with them, and if you have kept your

WHERE TO HUNT 99

eyes open you will have learnt something. There
are some Masters of Hounds who are such cur-
mudgeons that they do not like to see a stranger
out with their hounds, but luckily such round
pegs in square holes are the exception.

Of course, there is the visitor and the visitor :
the man who ranges from one country to another
and who subscribes in none — for him no snubbing
is too severe ; and the man who does his duty in
his own country and who pays a visit in a friendly
way. The latter is generally sure of a hearty
welcome, and I remember well on one occasion a
well-known Master of Hounds, as good a sports-
man as ever carried horn at saddle-bow, saying to

his huntsman at three p.m., " We will draw ,"

naming a covert three miles off, a sure find, " if
our visitors will go with us ; if not, we will go
home." Need I say that we went, and that we
had a run ? But the pleasure of these visits is
considerably enhanced when they take place at
rare intervals, and this is one more reason why I
say to those who want to enjoy the best that fox-
hunting has to give, " Identify yourselves with one
pack, and hunt from home."

CHAPTER XVI

SYSTEMS OF HUNTING

I wish
You had only in your silent judgment tried it.

The Winter's Tale.

More or less of a controversy exists amongst
hunting men as to the best method of hunting
hounds, and even those who care little for hounds
and hound work will be found giving their opinion
in no measured terms on the subject. It is some-
thing like the controversy between Finger and
Fist in Whyte-Melville's charming book, Riding
Recollections, for there are hard-and-fast adherents
to each system, and I suppose there will be so long
as fox-hunting exists. The two systems may, for
the present purposes at any rate, be termed the
noisy system and the silent system. Men who like
the latter are much put out at the constant holloa-
ing and horn-blowing which form features of the
former school ; their opponents say that hunting
with them is like going to a funeral.

Now in order to come to right understanding
on this subject, it is necessary to begin at the
beginning and see what are the objects which every
huntsman should have in view when he goes out
with his pack. First of all, of course, he wishes to
show his field sport, to which end it is necessary

SYSTEMS OF HUNTING 101

that his hounds should be well broken and handy,
and that he should have given his foxes a liberal
education during the cub-hunting season. Secondly,
in the interest of his hounds, he should endeavour
to handle at least one fox per diem ; for if sport
is desired hounds must be kept in blood. What
then is the best way in which to arrive at these
very desirable conclusions ?

It is above all things necessary that hounds
should be handy ; they must turn to their hunts-
man ; their attention must be directed to him, and
to him alone, when they are not on the line of a
fox, and it may be admitted that if hounds know
what their huntsman wants them to do, and do it,
the first great point is gained. This is the great
argument of those who hold with what they term
the cheery system. " Look at Tom Blowhard's
hounds," say they. " Why, when Tom holloas and
blows his horn, they're all round him in a crack,
and no hounds could run better than they last week.
Forty minutes over grass is good enough for us,"
they add with the virtuous air of men who know
they have done their duty in a quick thing ; and
if you should quietly hint that all could have been
done just as well with less holloaing and horn-
blowing, they will look sceptical.

Personally I must own myself an adherent of the
silent system, and the longer I hunt the more con-
vinced I am that noise loses more foxes than it
kills. To begin with, the foxhound is highly bred
and naturally excitable ; he is in the best of con-
dition, and under these circumstances he must do
something. If his excitability is kept under control
by a quiet man he is the most teachable of animals.
But a noisy huntsman encourages the excitability

io2 THE SPORT OF KINGS

of his nature, and tends to make him wild. Speak-
ing from my own experience, I have seen a much
greater tendency to run after currant jelly when there
has been a long draw, in countries where a huntsman
is always holloaing and always "playing on his horn."
Then again, a noisy huntsman is apt to be a very
excitable one ; he is apt to want to catch his fox
himself, to cast his hounds too fast, and to gallop
forward on many an occasion and leave his run
fox behind him. In a country full of foxes he
frequently would leave one fox behind him and get
on the line of another, and so have his hounds
running all day, and perhaps have to go home
without blood at night. On a bad scenting day—
and every hunting man knows that bad scenting
days prevail — he will give his field plenty of gallop-
ing and jumping, but his hounds will seldom be on
the line of a fox. This, no doubt, suits some
people, but it may well be questioned whether it is
of advantage to hounds and sport.

But there is another and a worse side to the
picture than this. As I pointed out, the great
thing is that hounds should understand what their
huntsman wants them to do and do it. And
there are many admirable huntsmen who belong to
what for want of a better word I have called the
noisy school. But a noisy huntsman invariably
makes a wild field, and when there is a wild field
on a bad scenting day, a field each individual
member of which wants to hunt the fox which he
has seen, the result is chaos.

I will give an instance. A huntsman I knew
was deservedly well liked by all with whom he
came in contact. He was a good man on the
flags, and his pack was a credit to him. He was a

SYSTEMS OF HUNTING 103

fine horseman, with a capital nerve ; he understood
hunting and the run of foxes ; he was very quick,
but he was noisy. One day when I was hunting
with him stands out as a forcible example of the
error of the system for which he is an advocate.
In the morning we had a very trying run, from the
huntsman's standpoint. Hounds had run hard for
ten minutes ; then came a check, and then the fox
took a line over bad scenting ploughs, and though
there was more of the holloa and horn than I liked,
there could be no mistake about the hounds being
well handled, or that they came readily enough to
the huntsman. Eventually hounds lost their fox,
and we found another in a very short time. The
huntsman was as quick as lightning in getting
away, and in the art of getting a start with his fox
he required no instruction. With a holding scent
hounds ran on for about an hour and a quarter,
and they were getting close to their fox when a
plantation of some half a dozen acres loomed in view.
Into this plantation the fox went, hounds hard at his
brush. Now it so happened that we were in a
country where foxes were plentiful, and hounds were
no sooner in the plantation than a fox showed himself
on one side of it and went away, and was of course
well holloaed at by those of the field who saw him.
Other two foxes went away with the same result,
the huntsman, of course, not seeing any of them.
But he began to blow his horn, thinking that one
must be his run fox, and the result was that as
hounds overshot the line he got their heads up, and
they set off for him. Meanwhile the run fox broke
at the low end of the covert. The huntsman was
quick enough in getting his hounds on to the right
line, but the mischief was done, hounds had got

104 THE SPORT OF KINGS

their heads up, and after running over a field they
overran the line, flashed forward, and ultimately
lost their fox. Now if the silent system had pre-
vailed, no notice would have been taken of any of
the holloas so long as hounds were running. They
would have come out of covert close at the brush
of their fox, and if they had not killed him before
he made the sharp turn down a thick hedgerow
which saved his life, they would have spread them-
selves with their noses to the ground when the
check came, instead of flashing forwards to look
for their fox. Hounds were not to blame, inasmuch
as they hunted steadily enough till the noise got
their heads up, and caused them to become excited,
and then they simply did not hunt with the per-
severance they should have shown. Nor was it
to be expected of them under such circumstances.
Depend upon it that the silent system shows more
sport and kills a better percentage of foxes than
the other, and it is, moreover, founded on the
soundest principle — the principle that it is im-
possible to kill a fox without hounds.

CHAPTER XVII

THE PRESERVATION OF FOXES

The man we'll all honour, whate'er be his rank,

Whose heart heaves a sigh when his gorse is drawn blank.

So sang that excellent sportsman and elegant poet
Egerton Warburton many years ago, and " so say
all of us." But unfortunately in these latter days,
and in some countries I wot of, if the owners of
certain coverts were to act as the good fellow did
to whom Egerton Warburton calls on us to drink
a " quassitum," there would be a breeze approach-
ing in violence to an equinoctial gale. I very
much fear that in many districts the preservation
of foxes is not carried on in that whole-hearted
manner in which it was a few years ago. Men
even who call themselves hunting men, men who
appear at the covert side and who look and talk
as if they like hunting, have been known to put
their shooting in front of it, and sacrifice the more
popular sport to the more selfish one by not allow-
ing coverts to be drawn until after a certain date,
thereby causing great inconvenience to the Master,
and doing themselves no good. Especially is a
certain class of shooting tenant given to this
manner of procedure, and in his case generally
there is not the number of foxes which there ought

106 THE SPORT OF KINGS

to be, neither are they of the right sort. Now I
am not for a moment wishful to infer that this
shooting tenant does not wish to have foxes in his
coverts. He says he does, and as he is in other
respects a good fellow — mind, I am not taking
into consideration the pot-hunting shooting tenant
who takes, with two or three more of his kidney,
as much shooting as any one will let to him, and kills
everything he can eat or sell, — we are bound to
believe him. Yet what is it that takes place when
hounds go to draw his coverts ? All during
summer you have heard of what fine litters of
foxes he had. When hounds go they find three
or four foxes ; in exceptionally favourable circum-
stances there may be half-a-dozen. A cub-hunting
sort of day ensues, foxes hang to the woods, and
those that are killed — there are sure to be one or
two killed — are, as might have been expected,
cubs. On a second visit a fox takes to the open,
he rings about, seldom getting more than a couple
of miles away, hounds get a view at him, and roll
him over — a cub. And the consequence of this is
that some parts of the country get unduly ridden
over, that a good deal of damage is done to crops
and fences in a certain locality, and that the
farmers not unnaturally get annoyed. But let us
inquire the reason of this change for the worse, for
in many countries I know it is a change. In the
first place I attribute it to the want of knowledge
of woodcraft in the master who rents the shooting.
He has all the country instincts, he was perhaps
brought up in the country, but he has had to
make his living, and ultimately his fortune, " in
crowded city pent." He may have kept up a
certain amount of mechanical skill in his hardly-

PRESERVATION OF FOXES 107

earned holidays, but he has no knowledge of wood-
craft, and he knows it. Worse still, his keeper
knows that he knows it, and acts accordingly. He
tells his master there are three litters of cubs in
the coverts under his charge. He perhaps takes
the trouble to show them to him, but he does not
trouble himself to say that at least two of the
litters will be carefully removed or destroyed, and
that as soon as the cubs in the other are able
to feed without the vixen, some fine moonlight
night she will go out and will return to her off-
spring no more. Here, in a nutshell, is the cause
of so many short-running foxes. They are either
removed cubs, which have no dam to show them
the way about a country, or their dam has been
ruthlessly murdered. And these are the foxes
which do the most damage in the poultry yard.
They have not the hunting faculty so strongly
developed as the fox that has been taken by his
dam in her nocturnal rambles, they are idle and
unenterprising. For though a fox is an animal of
prey, it must be admitted by all who have made a
study of his habits that he prefers to hunt for it.

In the first place, if the shooting tenant wishes
to have both foxes and game, it is a very simple
matter, provided he is firm about it. Foxes and
pheasants may not live in harmony exactly, but
there can be foxes in sufficiency, good wild foxes
brought up wildly and as foxes should be, and
as much game on a place as any man has a right to
keep, bearing in mind the rights of the farming
tenant. This is a first principle, from which
there is no getting away. The best game estate I
know — I was almost saying the best in England,
and it certainly is one of the best — is never scarce

108 THE SPORT OF KINGS

of stout wild foxes, which puzzle a good pack of
hounds to catch them. And what is the secret ?
An able head keeper, who thoroughly knows his
business, and who is not only not afraid to work
himself, but takes good care to keep no drones
amongst his underlings. For it certainly entails a
little more trouble on Mr. Velveteens to furnish
both foxes and game in plenty. But then it is
what he is paid to do, and if he does not do it he
should be promptly sent about his business. Nor
does it do any harm to the best of covert shooting
for hounds to be run through the coverts before
they are shot. If there are foxes, as there ought to
be, they ought to be disturbed in order that they
may know their business. Besides which, idleness
is the sure forerunner of mischief, and idle foxes
are the most mischievous of their kind. An odd
pheasant may perhaps not get back after hounds
have been through the coverts, but it will only be
an odd one if the keeper does his duty. And
against this is the set -off that hounds make
pheasants rise, and that where pheasants are very
thick on the ground this is what they do not always
do. Of course I do not for a moment suggest
that hounds should draw or even be permitted to
run into a covert if it can be avoided when a
shooting day is near at hand ; but my contention
is that foxes and game can live together, and that
hounds can draw coverts before they are shot
without doing any harm, if the keeper is worth his
salt.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE HUNTSMAN

A view of his coat is our beacon, the sound of his horn is

our call,
But his cheer to the hounds when he's near us — ah ! that

is the sweetest of all.

The Poetry of Sport (Great Guns).

It has been said that a huntsman is always in the
estimation of his field either a heaven-born genius
or a fool. As a matter of fact, in the majority of
cases he is neither. He is merely a man possessed
of ordinary intelligence and keen powers of observa-
tion, who has received a good training in his pro-
fession, and who is capable of fulfilling the onerous
duties which attach to it. There are huntsmen
to whom the word "genius" might be fitly applied ;
there are also huntsmen who may justly be termed
incapable, but the numbers which fill either rank
are few indeed. Geniuses in any rank of life
are necessarily few, whilst incapable men natur-
ally drift out of a profession for which they are
unfitted.

Even if a huntsman is the keenest of the keen
as a sportsman — and this is by no means always the
case, for there are respectable and capable hunt
servants to whom the word "sportsman" is scarcely
applicable — a huntsman's lot is by no means a bed

no THE SPORT OF KINGS

of roses. He has to work long hours, and to
work hard, his duties are nearly as onerous in
the summer as during the season itself, and it is
very much open to question whether ten per cent
of those who hunt ever give a thought to them,
or to the responsibility which attaches to the man
whom they criticise so freely and so unfairly. To
begin with, there is the entry to look after, and
that is no little matter when some fifty to sixty
couples of puppies are sent out to walk. The
drafting is a serious business, and on the manner
in which it is carried out does the effectiveness of
the pack depend in no small degree. The breed-
ing of the hounds, too, entails considerable thought
on the part of the huntsman, and the puppies at
walk are the subject of his constant care. Then
there are the hounds to exercise and condition, in
itself a science ; so that before ever the huntsman
takes the field he has plenty of work, and that of
an arduous nature.

To give his critics their due, they seldom find
fault with the hounds, the way in which they are
bred, drafted, or conditioned, for the very best of
all possible reasons, that they know nothing what-
ever on the subject, and are conscious of their
ignorance.

But once let the huntsman take the field, and
the floodgates of criticism are launched at his
unfortunate head. A frequent subject of fault-
finding is, that he does not blow his horn when
his hounds go away. Now frequently the field
carefully places itself on the upwind side of the
covert, and instead of attending to the business of
the hour, spends its time in the pleasant occupation
of coffee-housing. The delinquencies of Ministers,

THE HUNTSMAN in

the last big shoot, the Derby favourite, any and
every subject is discussed and thought of save the
" Little Red Rover " who is just now making up
his mind how to reach the distant point he has in
his eye. Now a good fox " takes no thought about
the order of his going, but goes at once," as soon
as the coast is clear ; and if a huntsman means to
handle a good fox, it is necessary that he should
get away on the top of his back. So he gets his
hounds together, gives a few blasts on his horn,
crams it into the boot, and rattles along in the
wake of his hounds intent on the business of the
day. The field in a few moments arise to the
situation, and set off in wild pursuit, grumbling at
the huntsman's jealousy. " I did blow my horn,
sir, didn't I ? ' once asked a well-known huntsman
of me as we rode together. But it was no use my
telling the field that he had done so. They hadn't
heard him — if he had blown his horn they must
have heard him ! Such was the argument. He had
really been good enough to hear when one was out
of earshot of the chatter of some two hundred
people who were attending to everything but what
they should have been. Mind, I don't say that
there are not huntsmen who go away without blow-
ing their horns, and who like to slip away with their
hounds alone ; but I would point out that it is
impossible for a man to hear the horn if he persists
in keeping upwind of the huntsman.

A huntsman is generally either too quick or
too slow. If he holds his hounds sharply on the
line which he knows by their manner that his fox
has taken, he is accused by the knowing ones of
lifting them. Yet the least knowledge of wood-
craft and attention to what was taking place would

ii2 THE SPORT OF KINGS

have convinced the critic that hounds had a line,
and that the huntsman was simply encouraging
them in well-doing.

" Why doesn't he ? " is a question which is asked
in the hunting field with a frequency which becomes
monotonous. " Why doesn't he get on ? " asked
an impatient man, who had gone well in a sharp
burst, and who had not got quite to the end of his
horse. Hounds had run hard for some fifteen
minutes ; an over-eager field had pressed them a
field over the line, and the huntsman, having made
a short cast down wind, was going back to where
hounds had last had a line. Of course, the hunts-
man was right, hounds had overshot the fox, and
the latter had taken advantage of the fact to slip
down a hedge-back. A curious instance of this
took place when Mr. Vyner was hunting the North
Warwickshire country. They had run the fox to
ground and bolted him, and away hounds went at
top pace with the field on the top of their backs.
Mr. Vyner followed on quietly, keeping his eyes
open, and when hounds checked, as they were sure
to do under such circumstances, on a catchy scent-
ing day, he saw the fox had clapped in a fallow,
and when hounds were carried on by the impetu-
osity of the field, he saw him turn and make his
way down a hedgerow. He blew his horn, and
no doubt the question was asked a score of times,
" Why is he blowing hounds back ? The fox
must be forward." Whoo-whoop, at the end of
five minutes, answered the query.

It is by no means an uncommon occurrence in
some countries for the " young bloods " to vote
a huntsman who hunts his foxes perseveringly on
a bad scenting day, slow, and many a veteran who

THE HUNTSMAN 113

can give his critics heaps of weight at riding is
pained by hearing himself called an old fogey,
and at hints being given him that he should retire
in favour of the first whipper-in, hints which, if
not given to his face, are sure to come round to
him.

Apart from the fact that this is very bad form,
it is unjust. It tends to unsettle a good servant,
for the admirers of the whipper-in do not fail to
fool him to the top of his bent, and it causes
jealousy, and perhaps ill-feeling, where there is no
necessity. No man likes to be ousted from his
place when he feels himself competent to fulfil the
duties of it, and it may be said that no man would
have the ill-manners to go into his friend's house
and advocate the butler's retirement, and the filling
up of his place by the senior footman or the page-
boy.

Two instances of the critics saying a huntsman
was getting slow and had given up riding, and of
their criticism receiving practical refutation as soon
as uttered, occur to my memory. On the first
occasion the huntsman had been persevering with
a bad scent and a twisting fox, and so raised the
spleen of the critics. But things took a turn,
hounds swam across a brook in flood — twenty feet
from bank to bank — which the huntsman took in
his stride, and, of course, stopped the field. On
the other occasion, hounds were running hard, the
fence was impregnable, and a locked chain was
round the gate — a high one. So the huntsman
jumped it, as a matter of course. " And silenced
the critics," you say. Well, scarcely. The man
who was born ten minutes ago and knows all about
it, is bad to silence.

1

CHAPTER XIX

THE WHIPPER-IN

See how Dick, like a dart, shoots ahead of the pack !

How he stops, turns, and twists, rates and rattles them back !

The laggard exciting, controlling the rash,

He can comb down a hair with the point of his lash.

Egerton Warburton.

Please don't call him "the whip" — it is usual but
incorrect, and is, moreover, rather slangy. The
whip is what he carries in his hand. The hunts-
man when he criticises his conduct on occasion —
and this is by no means so infrequent an occurrence
as the uninitiated would think — speaks of him as
"my whipper-in," and we may well all follow so
good an example.

Perhaps there is not so hard a worked man
about the kennel as the first whipper-in, unless it
be the second whipper-in, whom I always look
upon as being the scapegoat of the establishment.
Is a fox inadvertently lost when in the opinion of
the huntsman he ought to have been accounted
for, it is the second whipper-in who is asked
in rather sarcastic manner, why he did not do
something or other that he didn't do, and there is
no such good schooling for a youngster who is
ambitious to make his mark with hounds as being
a second whipper-in under a sharp huntsman who

THE WHIPPER-IN 115

is a good disciplinarian. It is the second whipper-
in who, when hounds are wanting at the end of a
long hard day, is sent to look them up, with a
sharp admonition to keep his eyes open for the
future. And though it must be admitted that a
little carelessness on his part when hounds are
going away from a covert is often the reason why
numbers are short at the end of the day, I am
always sorry for him when he has those long
solitary rides in the dark. But he is young and
does not feel the hardship, and doubtless on these
solitary rides he builds castles in the air as to what
he will do when he himself is on his promotion
and carries the horn.

The second whipper-in has plenty of hard work,
but the first whipper-in's duties are of a much
more important character. The second whipper-
in will be told on occasion that he has to do as he
is told and not to think for himself; his senior
will be asked at times, when things are not going
too well, " Why can't he think, and what are his
brains for? "

For the first whipper-in has a most important
post to fill. If the huntsman must always be with
his hounds, the first whipper-in must be every-
where at once. He must keep a sharp eye forrard
for holloas and take care, when foxes are numerous
and scent serves none too well, that hounds do not
change on to a fresh fox. He must always keep
well in front whilst hounds are drawing, be at
hand to turn hounds to the huntsman if necessary,
and yet see that a fox does not steal away unseen,
a thing which is not unlikely to happen when a
country has been well hunted, unless he keeps a
very sharp look-out indeed.

n6 THE SPORT OF KINGS

Then perhaps there are some distant earths
open, and he must ride his hardest to beat a straight-
necked fox to them, a feat in which, try as he
may, he sometimes comes off second best. He
gets a lot of fun, does the first whipper-in, but he
does not get overdone with praise by the hunts-
man. That worthy takes all his excellent pro-
perties quite as a matter of course : " If he wasn't
a good man I shouldn't keep him," he argues — not
without reason.

I once saw a very good whipper-in in a very
good run, a run for which we were in a great
measure indebted to him. To begin with, our fox
was making for a river which he would un-
doubtedly have crossed if it had not been that the
whipper-in forestalled him, and so our run was
saved instead of lost. Several times during that
run did I see the whipper-in at a critical point. If
hounds checked for a moment it was Sam's holloa
that put us right ; when hounds ran through a big
wood it was Sam that was there to turn the fox
away from the earth, and all went well till just as
we thought hounds were killing their fox. They
had run a nine-mile point, and looked like running
straight into him, and then he began to ring, and
just as they were about to kill him he tumbled
into an open earth. " Didn't you know that
this earth was open?" said the huntsman with a
look that would have killed at thirty yards. " I
thought they were killing him, sir," was the answer.
" Thought ! — you should have made sure," replied
the huntsman. It may perhaps be thought that
the huntsman was a little too severe to his sub-
ordinate, but it must be remembered that his
omission discounted all his previous smartness, and.

THE WHIPPER-IN 117

was the cause of hounds missing their fox when
they thoroughly deserved him. And you may be
sure that whipper-in remembered the next time
there were any open earths in front of a sinking
fox, which he probably might not have done if it
had not been for the reprimand.

In the kennel the first whipper-in has to take
command when the huntsman is absent on business
or from illness, and on occasion, when he is laid
up from accident or illness, he has to hunt the
hounds. Then comes his opportunity, and if he
succeeds in showing good sport there generally
comes for him the beginning of better things.
And when a whipper-in takes the horn for the
first time, the field should be more considerate
than they generally are under the circumstances.
For the whipper-in is heavily handicapped. He
has been accustomed to turn hounds and not to
call them to him. He is also working at the dis-
advantage of having a man short, or if some one is
put on to help him, he is unaccustomed to the
duties, and the second whipper-in is as strange to
his task as his senior is to hunting the hounds.
Therefore more room should be given him to
make his casts. But this is by no means the case,
and generally the wild ones are wilder than ever
when the first whipper-in hunts the hounds. A

whipper-in once said to me, "I wish Mr. ,"

naming the huntsman, " was able to come out
again ; the gentlemen don't take any notice of me,
and I haven't a chance to show sport," and the
man looked worried and anxious. Yet he was a
very capable man, and made a good huntsman.

The sport depends as much on the skill and
ability of the whipper-in as on that of the hunts-

n8 THE SPORT OF KINGS

man. Beckford was of opinion that a really clever
whipper-in was more indispensable to a pack of
hounds than a really clever huntsman, and he was
undoubtedly right. But it by no means follows
that a good whipper-in makes a good huntsman.
I have known several who were marked failures
when they came to carry the horn. I have also
known many who had no ambition to rise above
the rank they occupied. " I would sooner be one
of the best whippers-in in England than one of the
worst huntsmen," said one of them to me when I
spoke to him about a huntsman's place.

CHAPTER XX

RIDING OVER A COUNTRY

Someone has said somewhere that every English-
man thinks it is right to be able to ride and to
know something about horses, and that if a
foreigner were to question his ability in this
direction he would resent it bitterly. The author
of the remark was evidently a man of keen
observation ; Englishmen tacitly claim for them-
selves that they -we. facile princeps in the noble art
of horsemanship —

Bring Spaniard or Mexican, Cossack or Gaul,
We've a Dick in our village will ride round 'em all,

is the way they complacently sum up the situation.
And to a certain extent they are right. In no
country under the sun is horsemanship for the
pure love of it carried on as it is in the British
Islands, and certainly in no country under the sun
are such risks run in the more or less successful
endeavour " to witch the world with noble horse-
manship."

How that spirit of sport has come to be a part
of the national characteristics, how it has grown
with the nation's growth and strengthened with
its strength, is beyond the scope of the present
chapter. Suffice it to say that it has done so, and

120 THE SPORT OF KINGS

that hunting and riding to hounds, or after them,
find an increasing number of votaries every year.
If any proof of this were required, we have it in
the number of packs of staghounds which are to
be found in the country, and which seem certainly
to be on the increase.

Nowadays, when a man has made money, and
looks round for some means of recreation, it is a
common thing to find him buy a few horses and
commence riding to hounds, especially if he has
not passed what Dante calls " the middle house of
life." The large fields which we see in every
popular country are considerably recruited from
the ranks of business men — men who have had
little opportunity during their earlier years of
obtaining that practice in riding which is neces-
sary to the making of the finished horseman, and
yet men who generally acquit themselves with
credit, and occasionally with distinction. This
everyday experience, I think, is sufficient to show
that to Englishmen, Scots, and Irishmen alike,
horsemanship somehow comes by instinct.

Yet it is not a little curious that this instinct is
very seldom systematically cultivated, that practice
is frequently deemed sufficient to make perfect
horsemen, and that most men " tumble " them-
selves into the ranks of the good performers. It
is all very well to a lad whose ancestors have from
time immemorial lived, as it were, in the saddle,
to chuck him on to a pony without stirrups to
his saddle, and say, " Now, mind you don't part
company." That plan, or want of plan, answers
well enough with a youngster who has oppor-
tunities of riding in every holidays ; but it is not
the way which should be adopted, and which, by

RIDING OVER A COUNTRY 121

the way, too frequently is adopted, by those who
commence to ride later in life.

I am prepared to admit that there is a large
proportion of good horsemen in the country.
My long experience has caused me to form the
opinion that, whilst the brilliant horsemen of the
past have their equals in the present, and in in-
creased numbers, what for want of a better term I
may call the good average performers are very
much on the increase. But do we, as a nation,
ride as well as we ought to do ? I very much
question it. In fact, the falls in the hunting field
show, I think, conclusively that we have much to
learn, for it must be admitted that many of them
are preventable.

Indeed, when we come to look at the inex-
perience of so large a proportion of those who
swell the hunting field, and the badly broken
horses that they ride, it is a wonder that serious
accidents are not more common than they are.
Upwards of sixty years ago a calculation was
made, the result of which is as follows : It is 1 o
to 1 against a man who goes out hunting having a
fall at all ; it is 80 to 1 against either himself or
his horse being hurt ; it is 480 to 1 against the
rider being hurt ; it is 15,760 to 1 against a broken
bone, and 115,200 to 1 against fatal accident.
A later calculation, which, however, I have not at
hand, gives the odds against a fatal accident as
480,000.

But notwithstanding the comparatively small
number of accidents which take place, we are
constantly hearing of serious accidents in the
hunting field, and we may take it for granted
that many take place of which we do not hear.

122 THE SPORT OF KINGS

That accidents can be done away with altogether
is, of course, impossible, but that something in
way of education, both to the horse and the rider,
might prevent many of them, I firmly believe.
How many a man do we see taken down to a
fence by his horse, who is absolutely out of his
control ; who jumps wildly, and who, jumping
still more wildly when heavily blown, ends by
giving his unfortunate owner a heavy fall. Then
again, we see a man urging his horse at full speed
at a fence — the horse probably one of those
whose hind legs are a little " away from him," and
who should on that account be ridden in a very
collected manner at his fences. But in nine cases
out of ten he is not, and the result is disastrous.

Now I am of opinion that if men, and ladies
too, who go out hunting were to undertake a course
of " school " riding before they acquire bad habits,
the result would be an all-round improvement in
riding. I don't mean to say that every one would
be a brilliant horseman or a brilliant horsewoman,
or that every one would have good hands. Good
hands, like poets, are born, not made. But those
who had bad hands would find them better, they
would find their seat stronger, for many a man and
many a woman unconsciously fall into a slovenly
way of riding, which, in the long-run, is distressing
to the horses and tiring to themselves ; and, what
is even infinitely more to the purpose in riding
across the country, they would find the sympathy
between their horse and themselves the keener, and
the understanding better.

I must say that many of the ways of the manege
seem to me to be pedantic and unnecessary, but
1 have no doubt that they all have their uses in

RIDING OVER A COUNTRY 123

the training of horse and rider, though we do not
want to see them exemplified in the hunting field.
But the general result of a course of school riding,
I am sure, is good, and I commend it to all
aspirants to fame in the hunting field. I have, of
course, seen school riders whose nerve was not
equal to crossing a country, or who, if they got
up in a steeplechase, as I have seen them do on
occasion, made a very sorry example of themselves.
But the best man I ever saw go through a wood
was a man who had gone through a course of
school riding. His horse and he were as one, and
the pace at which he rode amongst the trees made
him the envy of all who saw him. In a word,
school riding may not be all that is claimed for it ;
it may be even pedantic at times ; but it serves
to establish a well-defined code of signals between
the horse and his rider ; it makes a good horse-
man better ; it makes a bad horseman into a decent
one ; and I think every one will admit that many
a fall would be saved if the rider knew how to
efficiently " lighten his horse's forehand."

CHAPTER XXI

NERVE

He knows where he's going, and means to be there.

Whyte-Melville.

Nerve has been defined by the lexicographers
as "steadiness and firmness of mind; self-com-
mand in personal danger or under suffering ; un-
shaken courage and endurance, coolness, pluck,
resolution." And it must be admitted that the
definition is a good one, covering most of the
ground. Yet have I known men who were
undoubtedly possessed of all these qualities in a
marked degree who were in no way good men to
hounds in the general acceptance of the term —
who, in other words, were lacking in nerve. And
some of these were fine horsemen, too.

It is a curious quality that of nerve. A man's
nerve, by which I mean his riding nerve, will go
from him in a day ; it will sometimes, but not
frequently, come back to him as suddenly as it
departed.

Every one who has hunted any length of time
and kept his eyes open must be able to call to
mind many a man who has commenced his hunt-
ing career with apparent enthusiasm, who has
gone like the proverbial "blazes" for two or

NERVE 125

three seasons, taking croppers as all in the day's
work, and then all at once given up hunting
altogether because his nerve has gone. He has,
perhaps, tried to "go" for a season, enduring
unknown tortures in the attempt, and then he
has given up altogether. He has never joined
the skirting brigade, not, perhaps, as some would
suggest, because he was too proud to do so after
having once been a first-flight man, but because he
did not care sufficiently for hunting.

A curious instance of loss of nerve occurs to
my memory, and doubtless some of my readers
may know of similar ones. A man, a very fine
horseman, gave up really riding to hounds long
before he gave up riding steeplechases. One
would naturally think that the latter was the more
dangerous pursuit of the two, as indeed it is ; but
the man I have in my mind's eye rode well
between the flags long after he had developed
one of the keenest eyes for a gap of any man I
ever knew.

Professional jockeys, whether on the flat or
between the flags, are rarely hard men to hounds,
though I have known some notable exceptions —
Custance, to wit, R. W. Colling, and Harry Luke
amongst flat-race riders, and Knox amongst cross-
country jockeys. But this must not be set down
to a lack of nerve altogether. In some instances
it may be due to this cause, but the principal
reason of their not riding hard is of a very differ-
ent nature. A jockey's time in his profession is
naturally a very short one. He has to work hard
to keep at a riding weight, and he knows that he
must make the most of his time. So, of course, a
bad hunting accident, or even a trivial fall such

126 THE SPORT OF KINGS

as the hunting man would not be much incon-
venienced by, might mean a serious pecuniary loss
to him. Especially is this the case with a steeple-
chase jockey, who might be wanted the day after
he got his fall, and perhaps he might lose ^30 or
even more by it. So let not the gay youth who,
as he thinks, " cuts down " the veteran steeple-
chase jockey say that " the old duffer has lost his
nerve."

I have spoken of those men wl^^ riding hard
for a couple of seasons or so, dropJJ^ of it alto-
gether. Now I come to a man ofvery different
stamp. He was perhaps never what is called a
bruiser, just rode on steadily, always taking a
good place, and always keeping it. I knew a
man of this kind who was very difficult indeed to
tackle for many years ; then he lost his nerve,
and though he occasionally jumped a fence — even
a big one — he never "opened out" as it were.
But he loved hunting, and he kept on. I re-
member him once saying that he had a very good
little mare, but she was too quick for him. I
rode that mare once or twice and did not find her
at all bad to handle. Well, the days of the little
mare went by, she was sold or something, and
some few years afterwards I happened to meet my
friend in the hunting field. Now the horse he was
riding was a handful and no mistake. I could see
that as we jogged on, after trying the first covert,
and I did not expect to see much of my friend
after we found. The mare aforesaid was an angel
compared with the horse he was riding. We found
at last, there was a scent, and I was one of those
who got a good start. It was a biggish country
we were crossing, gradually getting bigger as we

NERVE 127

went on. At the end of a quarter of an hour
came a check, and I was somewhat surprised to
see my friend amongst us as we pulled up. But
my surprise was to be still greater ; hounds hit off
the line, and ran down a long field, at the bottom
of which was a yawner. Down went my friend at
the yawner, which he cleared in gallant style, and
he was one of the very few who saw the death of
the fox, having gone in front the whole of the
way.

He has found his nerve again ! I must add
that he was always a fine horseman, and that his
nerve has never since failed him.

I once heard a man chaffed for having lost his
nerve — rather a heartless thing to do, I think, for
it is none too pleasant to know that one has lost
one's nerve, and a man always tries to hide it
from himself as long as he can. The circum-
stances were as follows : — The man in question
had had a bad fall, but, keen as mustard, he was
out again as soon as possible. Hounds were run-
ning, and crossed a cramped but soft place, from
which there was a sharp climb out. It was a place
where an impetuous horse might come to grief,
and if, as was the case with the man in question, a
man had not the full use of his limbs, he might
easily have been seriously hurt. So he turned his
horse away from what was little better than a gap
— in other words, he funked it. And immediately
he was chaffed about his loss of nerve by two or three
men who would probably have never got on to a
horse again had they had such a fall as he had had,
and who certainly would not have ridden hunting
so soon after a bad fracture. Hounds did not run
long, and when they had killed their fox, they went

i28 THE SPORT OF KINGS

into a more open country. Going from one covert
to another, they came across a gate which was bad
to open, and the men who had been so free with
their chaff looked round for some one to open it
for them, for opening necessitated getting off into
a wet hole. " I'll manage the gate," said the man
whom they had chaffed, and riding up to it at a
trot he jumped it in his stride. And then he
pulled up and " let them have it " concerning their
bad manners of the morning. His nerve, it will
be observed, was not strong enough to face the
cramped place in his then condition, but it enabled
him to ride over a gate in cold blood.

" Familiarity breeds contempt," says the old
copybook motto, and it is one of the curiosities of
riding nerve that a man will go hard in some
countries, whilst in others which are very similar he,
to use a well-known colloquialism, " will not ride
a yard." It is easy enough to understand how a
hard-riding man from the shires or any big low
country may find himself at a loss how to get to
hounds over the stones and bogs of Dartmoor,
and it is equally easy to understand how a native
of the moors, who will gallop top pace in the
heather regardless of holes and big stones, and who
will ride along precipitous paths with a nonchalance
which is perfectly appalling, will find himself non-
plussed when he meets a fairly wide drain with the
fence at the landing side. This is good enough to
understand. What is not at all easy to under-
stand is the case I put at first, that of a man going
hard in one country, and not going at all in one
which in every respect is similar. An instance of
this occurs to me. The gentleman in question,
who apparently has an iron nerve, will in his own

NERVE 129

country stop at nothing. His own country, too,
is a very big one, one of the stiffest I know, yet
there is he always to be seen in the same field with
hounds, "always in front, and often alone." He
will ride anything, no matter how unhandy, and
they all go well with him. I have hunted with
him in his own and in other countries, and in the
other countries he has been quite another man.
In fact, though they were much easier countries to
cross than his own, he has never been conspicuously
in front. It cannot, in his case, be that "familiarity
breeds contempt," though that may well be the
case with the ordinary sportsman who goes well in
a certain kind of country. What the reason is I
will leave for my readers to guess at ; it is beyond
me, and I can only state that such is the fact.

A man of a very different type is one who goes
well in all countries ; a man

To whom naught comes amiss,
One horse or another, that country or this,
Through falls or bad starts who undauntedly still
Rides up to the motto, " Be with them I will."

Such a man we all know, and perhaps the very best
man I am acquainted with, take him all round and
in any and every country, claims that he is one of
the most nervous men alive. He says that he sees
every fence, and is always glad when he finds him-
self at the other side ; though a fine horseman, he
hates a fresh horse, and I have heard him "wonder
what this brute is going to do next." Yet he will
get on to anything, and ride over any country, be
it what it will, and right up in front all the way.
Were he not the most unassuming man alive, I
should put his claim of nervousness down to affecta-

K

130 THE SPORT OF KINGS

tion ; as it is, I implicitly believe him when he
states that he is a nervous man. How, then, ac-
count for his being always amongst the choice few
who cut out the work ? I attribute this to his
strength of will. That he is a fine horseman with
seat, hands, and judgment goes without saying, and
having these good qualities, he is determined to
use them. " I don't like jumping these big rough
places," says he to himself, "but I am going to
jump them," and he does. Once when in Ireland
he asked a friend for a day's hunting with the
Ward. The friend had only one horse at liberty,
and that horse not a very desirable mount. He
could gallop and jump, it is true, but he was not
always in the humour, and he had put many a good
man "on the floor." There being nothing else
for it, he took the " uncertain " horse, and rode
out of the town in anything but a comfortable
frame of mind. "I don't like this," he said to a
friend he met on the road ; " the horse feels as if
he were going to do something, and I don't know
how or when he will begin." They arrived at the
fixture all right, and the stag was enlarged. Now
the gentleman in question had never ridden over
Meath in his life, and he thought the sooner he
got out of or into his difficulties the better. So
immediately hounds were laid on he rattled his
horse to the front, and in a field or two had got a
good lead. The horse, who was a fine jumper
and fast withal, never gave him any trouble, and
he maintained the lead to the finish, which I should
think is a record performance. And this is a man
who complains that he is short of nerve. Surely
there is nothing so curious about a man as his
riding nerve.

CHAPTER XXII

TWO OR THREE POINTS OF ETIQUETTE

It is not a little singular that points of etiquette
in the hunting field have constantly to be brought
to the notice of those who "join the glad throng
which rides laughing along," and that men — ay,
and women too — are guilty of rudeness in the
hunting field who are models of courtesy and
consideration for others in the ordinary avocations
of life. It is that question of consideration for
others which underlies all courtesy, and in the
hunting field consideration for others is absolutely
necessary for the enjoyment of sport. Now in
great things, in the more important matters which
appertain to hunting, I have no hesitation in
saying that this consideration is conspicuous, but
in minor matters it is frequently conspicuous by
its absence.

Let us take a few cases of what is due to the
Master. In the first place, it is bad form for the
man who hunts regularly to hunt in mufti. I do
not mean that he is always to be en grand tenue,
but he should not go out hunting regularly in
what has been termed ratcatcher costume. It is
certainly a slight to the Master and also to the
rest of the field. The excuse of the man who
goes out regularly in mufti is that it is more com-

132 THE SPORT OF KINGS

fortable than the orthodox costume of the chase.
Granted for a moment that his argument is a
correct one — and it is certainly open to question
— would the same gentleman go to a dinner-party
in an old smoking -jacket, which is indisputably
more comfortable than the regulation evening
dress ?

Then it is due to the Master to appear at the
place of meeting. There are some men who are
very remiss in this matter. To save themselves
half a mile's ride they will ride through coverts
on the road to the meet, or they will stop at some
covert where they think that a Master will draw
or ought to draw. This is the worst of bad form.
As they ride through the coverts they seldom take
care to be silent. They talk and laugh, and smoke
cigars, and clash gates, regardless of the fact that
all good foxes lie light, and that whilst they are
amusing themselves in this fashion the good fox
in the covert, put on the alert by finding his earth
stopped, has already taken in the situation, and has
carefully made good his escape long ere hounds
come to draw the covert. Then when hounds do
come, and perhaps own a line here and there, these
same men who have done the mischief will dis-
course learnedly of hound breeding, and tell you
that hounds do not hunt as they did, and that
the Master is breeding them on wrong lines. It
is always the Master, you will note. Not very
long since, at a favourite covert which chanced on
that occasion to be the second draw, the Master
on arrival found half-a-dozen horsemen riding
about in the field next to it chatting away gaily.
They had disturbed the covert, they had also
annoyed the farmer — a very good fellow, by the

POINTS OF ETIQUETTE 133

way — by riding about in his newly-laid seed field.
I am of opinion that the Master would have done
quite right if on seeing these people he had
"named" them to his field, and stated that
owing to their conduct he should spend the rest
of the day in the woodlands. I once saw a
Master punish the would-be clever members of
his field properly. It had become the custom
when hounds met at a certain place for many
people to station themselves at certain coigns of
'vantage round the coverts, which I have known
to be almost surrounded. The favourite fixture
was again selected, and, of course, the coverts were,
as usual, surrounded. The Master, however,
quietly moved off to the moors, and the lesson
has never been forgotten in that country.

There is one more point to which I wish to
draw attention. It is the duty of every one to
do all in his power to further the huntsman in
the pursuit of his duty. Theoretically every one
admits that he ought to stand aside for the hunts-
man. But, practically, how many people always
make way for him ? " Each resolved to be first "
is an excellent motto, but it should be borne in
mind that hounds without the huntsman are of
little use on a bad or catchy scenting day. This
is what you will see on occasion. Hounds cross
a road, and on getting through the gate out of
the road the huntsman wants to jump at right
angles into the next field, in order to be with his
hounds. He gallops a few yards up the head
ridge, and turns round to charge the fence. In-
stead of his charging the fence he is himself
charged by an impulsive hurrying crowd, who see
a nice line of gates in front of them. The hunts-

134 THE SPORT OF KINGS

man is bustled about, perhaps his horse's temper
gets upset, and in a few fields he falls, with the
result that, when hounds check, the huntsman is
not quite in the place that he ought to be in.
Straightway the huntsman is voted slow, and the
Master a duffer for buying such horses, and that
by the very men who have caused the mischief.
It should be unnecessary to point out that when
men ride through a gate, and there is any likeli-
hood of the huntsman — or, for the matter of that,
any one else — wanting to jump the fence which
runs at right angles, they should pull well out
into the field, and that those who prefer to ride
through gates and gaps, or to a point, should pull
to the outside of those who are riding to hounds,
and not gallop against them or between them and
the fence they wish to jump.

That good sportsman, " Borderer," amongst
the many things which he points out for the
avoidance of hunting men, says, " Don't crab
your own country, Master, huntsman, or hounds."
Seasonable advice this, for it is a mistake which
many good fellows make, and which is very trying
to the Master when it is brought to his notice,
which, sooner or later, is bound to be the case.
If you come to look at the facts you will see that
in every walk of life the genius is an exception,
and that in every walk of life, from statesmanship
to skittle-playing, there are plenty of capable men,
who, whilst not pretending to genius, can look
upon their lives as successful ones in the sphere of
action which they have chosen for themselves ; and
before you begin to lavish your critical remarks on
the action of your Master or huntsman, it is just
as well to bear in mind that whilst in all proba-

POINTS OF ETIQUETTE 135

bility they are neither genius nor fool, they know
a great deal more about hunting than you do.
One thing which I think is particularly unfair, is
that when a man has expressed an opinion un-
favourable to a certain line of action which a
huntsman has adopted, he continues to express
the same opinion after it has been clearly shown
to him that the huntsman was right. And I
would point out that many a time a huntsman's
cast is the correct one, even if it should fail to be
successful.

Here is a case in point. Hounds had been
running with a catchy scent for some twenty
minutes, and they checked. There was a big
wind blowing, the bulk of the field were on the
right of hounds, and close to the right of the
field was a large village. The huntsman made
his cast, and immediately his critics began to " ask
questions." " Why on earth is Jim going there? "
said they. " It is plain that the fox has not gone
there." And so it was when Jim had made his cast
and failed to hit off" the line of his fox. But I
wonder what any man who understood fox-hunting
would have thought of his powers as a huntsman
if he had not made a down-wind cast in the direc-
tion of a well-known covert before doing anything
else. The event proved that had he made an
up-wind cast he would have hit off, and most
likely have killed his fox. What really happened
was this : the fox had turned sharply to the right
down a deep gutter, eager horsemen had pressed
hounds a field over the line ; the horsemen who
had not done the mischief kept riding on as if all
that was to be done to recover the line was to
persevere in the direction in which they were

136 THE SPORT OF KINGS

going. The consequence was that the fox slipped
back behind them unseen. Had they stood still
when the check came they must have viewed the
fox, and the result would have probably been a
good run under the conditions. In other words,
had they devoted as much thought to what their
own duty was under the circumstances as they did
in wondering why the huntsman did this or the
other, their expenditure of thought would have
been to some useful purpose. The curious part
of the thing is that though it was explained to the
critics that the huntsman's cast was a scientific
one, in talking of that run they still maintain that
" any one could have seen that the fox had gone
on to Willingbury Hazels."

Another instance, even more remarkable than
the last, occurs to my memory. It was a wild,
stormy day, a strong wind fit to tear a man out
of the saddle was blowing, and it was almost an
impossible morning for hunting. The huntsman
was a man with a great reputation — a man who
was quite at the top of his profession, but it had
become the fashion in some quarters to " crab "
him. So a start was made, when he went to the
opposite end of the coverts to draw to what was
his custom. Of course, had he given the foxes
the benefit of the wind, so late as it was in the
season, they would have been gone long before
hounds could have got near them ; but that was
ignored, and his method of drawing the country
was somewhat severely handled. You see some
of the field had stationed themselves at the covert
they thought he ought to begin at, and had not
taken the trouble to go on to the meet. How-
ever, they found a fox, and hunted him for about

POINTS OF ETIQUETTE 137

half an hour, and then came a check. " Why on
earth is he making such a cast ? The fox has
never gone there," said the chorus when the
huntsman took hold of his hounds and made the
ground good all round. "It is patent to any one
that he went for Switchington Gorse," said one
very clever gentleman. But he had done nothing
of the sort. He had gone to ground where
hounds ceased running, and they had laid at the
earth ; but the huntsman made the cast to see
whether the fox had only tried the earth and
gone on, as foxes will do on occasions, or whether
he was in it. My firm opinion is that the gentle-
man who held that Switchington Gorse was the
fox's point believes to this day that he went to
that famous covert.

Some years ago I was hunting with a famous
pack of hounds. It was with our afternoon fox,
and scent had changed for the worse, and even on
grass hounds could not run. Patiently the hunts-
man hunted on for upwards of an hour, hounds
unable to do more than own a line, and for most
of the time they could not speak to it. Then a
heavy shower fell, and hounds having worked up
to their fox, rattled him along merrily for fifteen
minutes, and rolled him over. I expressed my
pleasure at seeing hounds hunt so closely and well,
and then a gentleman who was present put in a
criticism. "You are getting your hounds too
light tongued," said he to the huntsman. That
worthy made not much reply, but as we rode
home together he said to me, a propos of nothing
in particular, " There's a good deal of ignorance
covered by a red coat sometimes, sir."

CHAPTER XXIII

SOME HUNTING CHANGES

That hunting is carried on under very different
conditions from those which used to obtain is so
obvious that it seems unnecessary to call attention
to the fact. Yet at times it seems as if benefit
is derivable from a comparison with the " brave
days of old." For occasionally we hear men say,
" Such and such a thing would not have happened
fifty or sixty years ago," quite ignoring the fact
that fifty or sixty years ago the conditions under
which hunting was carried on were so totally
different that the comparison does not apply. To
begin with, in former times, with the exception of
the shires, nearly every man who hunted, hunted
from home. He resided within the limits of the
pack with which he cast in his lot ; the farmers
over whose land he rode were personally well
known to him ; he had an interest and a stake in
the country ; and in many respects his interests
were identical with those of the farmers. These
things of themselves tended to make farmers look
upon hunting men with more than a friendly eye,
and to welcome them on their land with that
hospitality which is one of the distinguishing
characteristics of the English farmer. Now
matters have so much altered with respect to the

SOME HUNTING CHANGES 139

composition of the field, that it is small wonder
that farmers at times look askance and grumble at
the damage that is done. The growth of the
railway system has enabled men who live in
crowded centres to get their hunting far afield ;
they run down from London to the shires, to
Essex, to Berkshire, and other hunting centres,
and hunts which now number their fields by
hundreds were wont formerly to number them by
scores. It has been said by some that no man
should hunt save he who owns or occupies land,
but that is manifest of so churlish a spirit that it is
not worth consideration. True, in the early part
of the century and pre-railway days the bulk or
the fields consisted of men who lived on the land
or by the land, but it has been one of the great
principles of fox-hunters to welcome every man as
a brotht^portsman, no matter what his rank and
calling,^R^ong as he conducted himself in a
sportsmanlike manner. At the same time it must
be recognised that the introduction into the hunt-
ing field of merchants, tradesmen, and professional
men in large numbers is a source of danger
to hunting. Naturally they know little about
country life ; their lives have been spent amidst
the bustle of noisy cities, and they are likely to
err frequently from ignorance and to do harm
unwittingly. They may, however, soon learn to
discriminate between new seeds and a two years'
clover ley, and learn how to avoid riding over
crops which are damageable, and that without
losing their place in a run. But equally important
as the avoidance of doing damage is the cultivation
of friendly relations with the farmers and residents
of the country or countries in which strangers

i4o THE SPORT OF KINGS

hunt. It behoves every man who hunts regularly
to identify himself as much as lies in his power
with the country in which he elects to take his
sport. He should be seen in it at other times as
well as in the hunting season, and he should
co-operate as much as possible in furthering some
of the interests of that country in which hunting
has no special part. His purse should certainly be
open, but his personal co-operation would be even
more appreciated than his subscription. No doubt
some trouble would be involved, but the result
would be worth the trouble ; and were the men
from a distance to realise this fact they would
materially lighten the load of Masters of Hounds,
and we should probably hear of fewer resignations
from them.

In another matter there is a great change, and
one which is, I think, for the better. Formerly a
noisier method of hunting prevailed than obtains
nowadays. There was more holloaing and horn-
blowing, and hounds were consequently much
wilder than they are now. That they killed foxes
and showed good sport is true, but they had not
such large fields to contend with, and were cer-
tainly not so well disciplined, as a rule, as they
now are. With regard to horn -blowing when a
fox goes away, our modern huntsmen may be con-
sidered as somewhat chary of it, and make rather
too little noise, especially in big woodlands. There
is no doubt but that this is in a manner caused by
their jealousy of the " thrusters," who always will
be on hounds' backs when they have a chance ;
but it is an error of judgment for all that, for the
innocent are punished with the guilty, and nothing
vexes a man who has done his best to assist the

SOME HUNTING CHANGES 141

huntsman more than being left. When a fox has
really gone it is the duty of a huntsman, according
to the late Lord Berkeley's dictum on a historic
occasion, " to blow his horn and shout c gone

away ' or ' gone to ' or something." Then,

and then only, is he to be excused for making a
noise, and then he ought to make one.

Another new departure, and one which seems
to me a very objectionable one, is the pace at
which hounds are taken from one covert to
another. This is a growing evil. Instead of the
regulation " hound trot," the pace is a round trot
of seven or even more miles an hour, and when
there is grass handy a strong canter is sometimes
indulged in. At other times a big line across a
country is selected. This is all wrong. To go at
such a pace from covert to covert severely handi-
caps the man who has only one horse, for he
always finds this tell on his horse before the end of
the day, and he not infrequently has to miss the
end of a good thing because his horse has been
unduly bustled in going from covert to covert.
Similarly, taking a big line over a country is to be
avoided when drawing. There are plenty of men,
good sportsmen, too, who do not aspire to ride
over a country, but who like to see a bit of fun
from the lanes and bridle roads. There is no
reason why they should not have their fun, and
they are frequently good supporters of the hunt.
Therefore, Masters of Hounds, in the interests of
the sections of their hunt to which I have drawn
attention, would do well to consider the question
of pace and route when going from covert to
covert.

CHAPTER XXIV

A GOOD RUN

There is nothing more amusing than to notice
men's opinions respecting the sport they are having,
and sometimes when one has listened to their de-
scriptions of the runs they have seen, one is tempted
to ask the question whether there ever was a really
good run. Of course, runs differ in degree, but
I think it falls to the lot of few men to see many
brilliant runs in their lifetime, even should they be
men who hunt a great deal. For be it understood
that to be out when a good run takes place and to
miss it, as will happen on occasion to the best of
men, is even more aggravating than not to have
been out at all.

Good runs are of two kinds. There is the
good run of fiction, and there is the more prosaic
good run which goes to the making of hunting
history. It must not be thought that I would
include in the good runs of fiction those spirit-
stirring passages in Whyte-Melville's or in Surtees'
books which afford so much pleasure to hunting
readers. The run in Digby Grand, Walter
Brooke's fall at the eighteen-foot drain, that stern
ride over Exmoor after the wild red deer, all these
stand out in bold relief as choice bits to which the
sportsman recurs with pleasure, and alongside them

A GOOD RUN 143

may be placed the famous Cat and Custard Pot
day, and Michael Hardy's first day with the Gin
and Water Hounds, inimitable bits of description.
But by the good runs of fiction, I mean those
which appear in the pages of the gushing novelist,
who, by the way, is generally a woman. What
incredible distances hounds are made to run, and
in what a remarkably short space of time ; what
horrible obstacles are cleared at a bound (that
genial Irishman Charles Lever treats us to im-
possible places enough, but he is mild in comparison
with some I could name) ; rivers are jumped like
a four-foot drain. I often wonder how the youth
who has feasted on such literature feels when he
sees hounds for the first time and discovers what a
stern, uncompromising look there is about four feet
of stiff timber, and how neatly it can roll a good
horse over if he should take off a moment too
soon.

The good runs of which I would speak, how-
ever, are much more prosaic affairs than those
which adorn the pages of Ouida and other writers
of that class. And here I would point out how
difficult it is to define a good run. Every one
knows or should know a good run when he has the
luck to see one, but a definition of one is quite
another matter. To begin with, it is essential that
there should be a point, yet I have seen many a very
good run in which it could scarcely be said that
a good point was made. The ideal run — forty
minutes on the grass without a check — presupposes
a six or seven mile point, and one of the best runs
it was ever my lot to see was a seven-mile point in
forty minutes over a very stiff" bit of country in
which grass was rather too scarce.

144 THE SPORT OF KINGS

Most of the great runs I have seen — and I have
seen about eight or ten in my time — have lasted
more than an hour ; some have lasted for two, and
one run, or rather succession of runs, was timed at
three hours and a quarter. The latter had not a
big point — as a matter of fact, hounds ran the
same ring twice, but it was a very wide ring, a lot
of country was crossed, and only eight of us saw
the finish, and of the eight horses up at the finish
one died from the results of the run, whilst another
horse or two were killed in the field. Then there
is the question of pace. For a run to be entitled
to be called a great one, or even a good one, there
must be a good pace most of the way. Hounds
must drive and not hunt, though a few minutes'
slower hunting should not necessarily relegate a run
to the ranks of the moderate. It is strange, nay,
'tis passing strange, 'tis wonderful, what very
elastic ideas some men have respecting pace. I
was once out in a good country, hounds ran an
eight-mile point in an hour, rising some 800 feet
in the time, and on talking the run over with a man,
he remarked that it was a pretty gallop, but slow.
As for a considerable distance the leading horsemen
were never in the same field with hounds, and as
my critical friend was generally a field behind the
leading horseman, I pointed out to him that there
had been an opportunity to distinguish himself of
which he had not taken advantage, and I asked
him why he had not ridden on.

A run somehow or other gets coloured by the
place from which a man has seen it. If he has got
thrown out, or has missed it by some mischance,
he is apt to look at it with prejudiced eyes, and to
say that " it was not such a very good run after

A GOOD RUN 145

all." But when a man has occupied a good place
in a run, when his horse has carried him well, and
he has been well forward all the way, he naturally
looks upon that run with a favourable eye, and the
distance is apt to expand and the time contract
with the telling.

But the fact is that many men who go hunting
expect too much. Knowing nothing and caring
nothing about hounds and their work, these men
miss the niceties of a hunting run, and are conse-
quently apt to be censorious of anything which
takes place at less than top pace.

Brilliant runs, as I have pointed out, are the
exception. They take place only now and again,
and it would be absurd to expect them to take place
with much greater frequency than they do. But,
given a fox "who leaves the parish " ; given sufficient
scent to keep going, even if the pace is slow ;
given also a varied country, and one in which it is
possible to see hounds work, and here are all
the elements which go to make sport. It is, I
know, unfashionable to speak of anything that
does not approach a steeplechase in pace as a good
run, but given the conditions above named, and
there is, in my opinion, many a good run and
enjoyable run which the thoughtless dub as a rotten
one, and deplore their luck for falling in with.

CHAPTER XXV

HUNTING ACCIDENTS

No game was ever yet worth a rap,

For a rational man to play,
Into which no accident or mishap

Could possibly find its way.

Adam Lindsay Gordon.

When the history of a season comes to be written,
and its excellences and its shortcomings reckoned
up, amongst other things that will come in for notice
are accidents. For from all parts of the country,
north, south, east, and west, in the shires and in
the provinces, comes the same tale. There are
accidents which have terminated fatally, and more
which have entailed considerable suffering on those
to whom they happened, combined with being
crippled for a longer or shorter period. Some
of these accidents have been occasioned by wire,
but not so many as one would think when one
comes to consider the many miles of wire fencing
which exist throughout the length and breadth of
the land. But to their credit, be it said, the great
majority of farmers are willing to have their wire
taken down. For some reason with which wire
has nothing to do, hunting accidents are becoming
more numerous, and it behoves hunting men to
look into the matter and endeavour to find the

HUNTING ACCIDENTS 147

cause of the growing evil. When in one hunt,
and that not a particularly large one, the number
of sportsmen laid up during the season from
fractures, concussions, and other injuries amounts
to about eight per cent of the average number
found at the meet, it is time indeed to look round
and ask questions.

Of course, it is an understood thing that he who
plays bowls must expect rubs, and it is impossible
for a man who rides over a country to secure an
immunity from falls. These he will get whether
he rides over a difficult or an easy country, and
more frequently, perhaps, in the latter than in the
former ; at least, that has been my experience.
Occasionally also a man will get nastily hurt, and
at times the whole hunting world will be shocked
by a fatal accident. But these serious accidents
are becoming more numerous, and the increase in
the size of the fields is not sufficient to cause the
increase in nasty accidents. It has been said that
hounds run faster than they did, and that on
that account accidents more frequently happen ;
but the accidents do not happen as a rule when
hounds are running their hardest, a hunting run of
an hour and a half at a holding pace being generally
more productive of serious disaster than a brilliant
forty minutes. Blind drains contribute their quota
to the dismal roll, and there is no doubt that in
some countries ditches are not so scoured out as
was the case when agriculture was prosperous, and
every farmer vied with his neighbour in the neat-
ness of his holding.

I think that one fruitful source of misadventure
is the lack of judgment displayed on the part of
many of the field. They have entered upon

148 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hunting without any knowledge of practical
horsemanship ; they have doubtless plenty of
pluck to get them into difficulties, but they lack
the fine hands and coolness by which many a
man gets out of difficulties scathless. A fine
horseman may, and frequently does, get a nasty
fall, even when riding a made horse, but he is
not so frequently hurt as is the man to whom I
have just alluded.

But there is a danger in the hunting field which
could easily be removed, a danger, too, which is
fast increasing, and which is of so serious a nature
that it is really a wonder that there is not more
disaster than there is. Look at any field when
hounds go away from a covert. You will see men
go in a harum-scarum fashion, their horses all
abroad and themselves more so, intent on only one
object, viz. to pass some one who is in front of
them. What care they for the men whose horses
they knock out of their stride and into the fence ?
What care they over whom they ride or on to whom
they jump ? Their selfish object must be attained,
and when their turn comes, as come it generally
does in the end, they are the loudest in their com-
plaints. Here is an account of some preventable
accidents. In one instance a gentleman's horse
fell on the far side of a drain ; a reckless man riding
in his wake knocked him down as he was rising,
his horse catching him on the head ; the result was
the unfortunate man was carried from the field
unconscious, that concussion of the brain took
place, and he has not yet fully recovered. The
other case was even worse. A gentleman fell over
a fence. It was in a country where there was
plenty of room, and there was not the slightest

HUNTING ACCIDENTS 149

occasion to be riding in his line even. Yet one of
the reckless ones galloped madly on, jumped the
fence, his horse landing with both forefeet on the
unfortunate man who was down. The result was
that he got a broken collar-bone and several ribs
knocked off, and was in an altogether helpless con-
dition. You would naturally think the guilty one
would have pulled up and done what he could for
the man he had injured. But no : he must keep
his place at any cost, and he galloped on and left
him. Fortunately his plight was noticed, and he
was attended to by some good Samaritans, but so
far as the man who did the mischief was concerned
he might have lain there till now. If I had been
the Master of that particular pack of hounds I
should have felt inclined, on his next making his
appearance at one of my fixtures, to request him to
withdraw or I would take hounds home. Such a
man is a danger to every one in the hunting field,
and his room is certainly preferable to his company.
The other accident to which I allude is that which
happened to a well-known Master of Hounds,
who was so severely kicked on his making his first
appearance after a prolonged absence due to an
accident, that he had to leave the field. This kind
of accident is preventable, and on the subject of
kickers every practical man will endorse the opinion
of Captain M. Horace Hayes, who says, " The
presence of the orthodox danger signal in the form
of a red bow on the animal's tail is no excuse for
bringing into a large field of horses a brute which
will resent being touched behind." Finally, if men
would be more considerate of others, if they would
take their own line and avoid " cutting in " and
jumping on their friends, there would be a

ISO THE SPORT OF KINGS

diminution of hunting accidents. Accidents there
would be of course : that is inevitable, but the
accident which can be prevented would disappear,
and this, after all, is the worst to bear under any
circumstances.

Any one who has had a thirty -years' ex-
perience of hunting will, I think, readily admit
that there are now more good horsemen riding to
hounds than there were a quarter of a century ago.
Where then you saw a dozen men going well over
a country, now you see from a score to thirty.
But unfortunately there are now also more bad
horsemen hunting, and to their conduct in the
field many accidents could doubtless be traced were
the trouble taken to do it. In individual cases no
one, however, likes to attempt such a thing,
though I often wonder, when I see a bad fall, how
some of those who are present can feel themselves
quite guiltless in the matter.

Here is a source of danger. There are many
men who, with little knowledge of the sport,
and possessed of the merest rudimentary know-
ledge of the art of riding, yet are by no means
void of ambition and emulation, and though
they have the sense to know that they cannot
aspire to ride alongside the flyers of the hunt,
they think they are quite good enough to beat
each other. Jones tries to cut down Robinson,
and Smith tries to cut down Jones, and amongst
them all Johnson comes to grief. If you want
to see how foolishly and recklessly some of
these people ride you have only to go out in a
dogcart when hounds are at a favourite fixture.
Mind, they are all good fellows, they merely
err from ignorance, but they err nevertheless.

HUNTING ACCIDENTS 151

And the sum of their offence is that in the
great majority of cases their horses are nearly,
if not quite, out of control as long as a
gallop is left in them. They see the first-flight
men gallop faster than they are doing, and con-
sequently they flatter themselves that they are
riding at a safe pace. What they do not see is
that the first-flight men can stop their horses at
any moment. And to this absence of control over
their horses many of the misadventures caused by
crossing at fences is due.

I should be inclined to express the opinion that
there are fewer fatal and dangerous accidents in
proportion in steeplechasing than there are in
hunting, and the reasons for this, I take it, are
that no man gets up to ride a steeplechase without
having some pretensions to horsemanship ; that in
a steeplechase each man takes his own line, and it
is only in the case of a horse swerving that any
" crossing " takes place ; and that the fences all
have to be jumped. It is a frequent matter of
comment that there are more nasty falls in an easy
country than in a stiff one, and the reason probably
is that no man attempts to ride over a stiff country
unless he is mounted on a horse that has some
pretensions to being a hunter.

" It sometimes happens that when a horse has
been doing stiff fences he fails altogether over a
much easier country." So says Sir Claude de
Crespigny, and than him no one has a better
right to give an opinion. Similarly many a clever
hunter, who can and does clear high timber, thick
bullfinch, or wide drain without a mistake comes
down at a little place which a boy could jump on a
pony. The horse is careless, the man equally so,

152 THE SPORT OF KINGS

and the result is a bad fall. In this respect I can
speak from personal experience.

I wonder how many of my readers remember
poor Morris of the 7th Hussars, and his sad and
untimely fate. That he was killed out hunting is
certain ; how the accident happened will never be
known. He was found dead, his neck broken,
with his collar and shirt unbuttoned, and his
breast-pin stuck in his coat. Everything points
to a collision, but one thing is certain, that the
poor fellow was left by some one who should have
remained with him till assistance came.

That we shall always have hunting accidents so
long as men ride to hounds is certain, but it is
possible that they may be fewer than they have
been of late years. That they ought to be fewer
most men of experience believe. Let us, then, try
to reduce them to a minimum, which is only to be
done by keeping full control of our horses, riding
our own line, and keeping ourselves in that good
condition which enables us to make an extra
exertion when extra exertion is needed.

CHAPTER XXVI

HOW NOT TO DO IT

Not the least of the difficulties with which fox-
hunting has to contend in these latter days is the
eagerness with which some men rush into print in
order to make suggestions about a sport of which
they have little or no practical knowledge. I have
already pointed out that the keenest critics of
Masters and huntsmen are those whose ignorance
is generally pronounced, and so, pari passu, is it
the case with the man who poses as the reformer
of hunting practice, and who seeks to set up a
code of hard-and-fast rules to govern a sport of
the inner life of which he knows little or nothing.
And it may be remarked that a man may have
hunted regularly, he may indeed have hunted for
many years, yet be in the most absolute ignorance
of a great deal which appertains to what is, after
all, the king of field sports. And the very fact
that there is underlying the would-be reformer's
unpractical schemes a certain substratum of abstract
right renders his interference all the more harmful.
It may be laid down as an axiom that every
man who hunts regularly should subscribe to one
or more packs of hounds, according to circum-
stances ; and it is well known that there are many
men who contrive to evade subscribing to any

154 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hunt, or who, when they do subscribe, get off with
paying as little as they can, and these are the
gentlemen who render a hunt secretary's life a
burden to him at times.

Here comes our reformer, who has recently
been giving us the benefit of his opinion. " Every
man must subscribe who hunts," says he, " and if
he does not subscribe resort must be had to cap
money." With this suggestion there is not much
fault to find, and the resort to cap money would
only be a return to an old custom. At the same
time, even the resort to " cap money " has its
difficulties. For example, it would seem hard for
a man who goes out on one horse for an hour or
two, and who is obliged to leave, say at 2 p.m.,
to give 20s. or ios. to see every covert drawn
blank until he left, and then to find that the run
of the season had taken place in his absence. This
is an extreme case, certainly, and the man who is
situated as I describe is generally the member of
some hunt or hunts, and as such would be exempt
from "capping." "Capping," I may say, how-
ever, seems to be the only way of getting at
those gentlemen who reside on the borders of
two or three hunts, and carefully avoid sub-
scribing to any of them, but it will require doing
with tact.

With respect to what the subscriptions should
be our reformer lays down the law in no half-and-
half style. A man must pay according to the
number of horses he keeps is his dictum, and then
he goes on to say that though this seems hard on
the heavy weight, yet it is only just, as the heavy
man with his second and third horses does more
harm than the light man. Now this is just what

HOW NOT TO DO IT 155

the heavy man does not do. How is it that in
the big runs — the runs that make history — the
heavy weights — by which I of course do not mean
the sixteen and seventeen stone division, but the
thirteen and fourteen stone men — almost invariably
beat the light weights ? It is not that they can
crush through a bullfinch which would hold the
nine-stone man, for these occur but seldom in a
run, and are besides only found in some countries.
It is because the heavy man generally rides with
more discretion, does no unnecessary galloping
about, and does not take the liberties with a horse
that his lighter friend seldom fails to do. It is the
light man generally who rides over the softest
ground, regardless of consequences, and it is on the
softest ground that the damage is done. As for the
second horsemen, Lord Lonsdale and other Masters
of Hounds have taught us how to deal with them.
Roughly, the plan of subscribing so much per
horse, or so much per day per week, has a good
deal to commend it, and it is practically acted
upon by a great proportion of the rank and file
of hunting men in assessing their subscriptions ;
but as a hard-and-fast rule it would never do.
To begin with, the man who felt himself bound
under such a stringent rule would undoubtedly
feel inclined to insist upon certain rights in return,
and a good deal of the pleasantness which at
present exists between the Master and Secretary
and the members of a hunt would, at any rate, be
endangered, whilst it is by no means certain that
the funds would benefit to any considerable extent.
For example, a man might be asked point blank
for a ^50 subscription, who under the present
state of things would have gladly given £100.

156 THE SPORT OF KINGS

And it may be said that, on the whole, public
opinion exercises a very salutary effect on the
question of subscriptions.

Then our recent reformer tells us how, in his
opinion, much of this money should be spent.
He says in the first place the farmer should be
subsidised, i.e. he should be paid a certain sum of
money to allow hounds to cross his land, and that
on his part he should take down all wire, etc.
" Then," says he, " the hunting man would have
a right to cross the land, instead of being as now
only a guest, and sometimes an unwelcome one."
I don't think I ever came across a more impracti-
cable suggestion. The whole question absolutely
bristles with impossibilities. In the first place,
supposing sufficient money were raised to subsidise
the farmers in a hunt, which is not by any means
a certainty, how is it to be distributed ? Is the
man whose land is crossed twice in a season to
have the same amount per acre as the man on
whose farm is situate a favourite covert, which is
drawn some once a fortnight, or oftener, from
November to March ? Is the man over whose
farm hounds never run to be left out altogether ?
If so, he will be dissatisfied, and if he is not left out
some of his neighbours will be discontented. Is
the farmer who hunts to be treated in the same
way as the farmer who does not ? In either case
there would be grievous heartburnings.

But supposing these matters were settled, how
would the field "who had a right" be likely to
behave. They would naturally be more careless
about leaving gates open, they would not be so
amenable to the Master's orders about damaging
crops, they would in a majority of cases consult

HOW NOT TO DO IT 157

their own convenience, and their own convenience
only, and in reply to remonstrances would return
the unanswerable argument, " I have paid for it."
Then suppose by any mischance a bit of wire
should have been placed in a gap by a farmer, or
by one of his men without his knowledge, and
that particular bit of wire, having been forgotten,
were to cause an accident, under this scheme the
farmer would be actionable, and though very few
would bring an action under the circumstances, it
cannot be said that no one would. Then again,
it may be urged, if you pay the farmer for riding
over his land, he should not only take down the
wire, but should have no unnegotiable fences on
his land. And then you are brought face to face
with the question as to what is a negotiable fence,
a question which never has been, and never will
be, satisfactorily solved.

There can be no doubt about one thing. When
a farmer really sustains damages, he must be
reasonably and fairly treated, and this in the
majority of cases he is. Hunting depends on the
mutual forbearance and courtesy and tact of the
owners and occupiers of land and of hunting men,
and any change in the fundamental principles
which underlie it would tend to harm and not
good. A hard-and-fast contract between the
parties concerned would only tend to promote ill
feeling and probably litigation, and our recent
reformer has admirably succeeded in showing us

HOW NOT TO DO IT,

CHAPTER XXVII

CAPPING

" Ways and means " are a very important item
in every hunt, and how to provide the sinews of
war is a matter which exercises that sorely-tried
individual, the hunt secretary, no little. For it is
palpable that increasing fields and the requirements
of modern sport mean increased expenditure, and it
is unfortunately true that funds are not forthcoming
in proportion to the number of men who hunt.
In fashionable countries and in provincial countries
alike ; in countries where the expenditure is
counted by thousands, and in countries where a
very few hundreds serve to keep things afloat,
there is heard the same complaint, that too many
of the men who hunt want their hunting for
nothing. Resignations, too, take place from time
to time, because Masters of Hounds are called upon
to pay too large a proportion of the expenses ; and
not unfrequently, when a " whip up " is made to
meet the requirements of the Master, there is great
difficulty in collecting the extra money promised.
Why this should be it is difficult to say, but men
who will spend their money lavishly over a
moderate snooting appear to think that they
should enjoy the best of good hunting for a very
moderate outlay. Of course such a state of things

CAPPING 159

is wrong ab initio, but it is very difficult to say
how to put it right. A suggestion has been made
that a man should subscribe in proportion to the
number of days per week that he hunts, and there
certainly is something to be said in favour of such
a proposal. But there is one thing which must be
borne in mind, and that is that as soon as fox-
hunting becomes as it were a close borough, as
soon as only subscribers are allowed to hunt, and
an attempt is made to dictate to a man what the
amount of his subscription must be — in other
words, as soon as fox-hunting is confined to club
members, so soon will fox-hunting be on the down-
ward line. For fox-hunting exists on the mutual
forbearance not of one or two, but of several
classes, and it is not difficult to show how what for
want of a better word I will call the "club"
system would entail a hardship on many a man who
enjoys an occasional day with hounds on a friend's
horse, and who works very hard to get it. It may
be said off-hand by some who only look at one
side of the question, "Well, such a man is as well
away. What can he ever do for the sport ? " But
besides being a selfish way of putting the matter, it
is begging the question with a vengeance. For
though this man's circumstances may not admit of
his paying a liberal subscription and keeping a
large stud of hunters at the present time, it is
quite possible that in the future he may be able to
do so. In the future, too, he may own coverts,
and then he will be an important personage enough
in the eyes of all hunting men. And even if he
does not, if he never rises even to the position of a
one-horse man, he has a kindly feeling for the
sport, a kindly feeling which tends to promote a

160 THE SPORT OF KINGS

strong public feeling in favour of fox-hunting, and
is that no small matter, my masters ? You have
only to talk to a man who has seen a day or two's
good hunting in the days of his youth to find how
the hunting spirit lives and burns undyingly in
him who has ever mixed in the sport thoroughly,
be it in ever so small a manner. A couple of
instances occur to me. One is of a draper whom I
met some years ago. Strong was that man's opinion
in favour of fox-hunting. Equally strongly did
he protest against the folly of the Humanitarian
League in condemning the Royal Buckhounds, and
in the course of conversation it oozed out that in
the long ago he had enjoyed his day or two to
hounds, and he told with sparkling eyes of how he
had read in one of the sporting papers of a run
which was nearly identical with one he had ridden
in many years before with no small credit to him-
self. I asked him why he did not hunt now, and
he told me that he had never had a chance to keep
up his riding, and that now his nerve was gone.
But, he added, " I read every word of the Field,
and Land and Water, and the County Gentleman,
every word, that is, which relates to hunting."
The man is a wealthy man, and should he ever
purchase an estate there will be foxes in his coverts
and cherry brandy on his sideboard for fox-hunters.
The other gentleman, with whom I had a charming
conversation, was an actor, a man who had seen
men and cities, a man of wide experiences. Some-
how we got to talk of our boyish days and our
boyish escapades, and he told me of the sport he
had enjoyed in the long ago when Sir John Cope
hunted the country over which Mr. Garth pre-
sides. He had had a few days, and gone well on

CAPPING 16 1

occasions, so well that once Sir John gave him the
brush. Need I say that that brush is a happier
memory to him than the rounds of well-merited
applause which greeted his most finished per-
formances. Since his early youth he has had no
opportunity of hunting, but his heart is in it.
Now need it be asked that such men as these form
a healthy public opinion respecting the sport of
sports, and help to keep the fin-de-siecle Chad-
bands and Stigginses in their places.

But it may be asked, How are the sinews of
war to be provided ? How are men to be induced
to pay their proper quota to the hunt funds ? I
am very much afraid that there are some men who
will never be induced to do what they ought to do
in this direction. From the first they are hopeless.
But with fields increasing and expenses increasing
something must be done, and there seems to be a
general disposition to revive the old system of
" capping." Against this, if it be done tactfully, I
have no objection whatever. It has been suggested
that a guinea should be asked for from every man
who is not a member of an established hunt, save,
of course, the farmers ; but I am inclined to think
this is too heavy. A guinea is a lot to give for
a blank day. With a pack of staghounds near
a town it may be found to answer to adopt such a
plan, but a heavy " cap " with foxhounds is to be
deprecated. Then it has been mooted that all men
not members of the hunt should be asked for a
guinea. But a guinea, or even half a guinea, is, I
take it, too much to exact from strangers, many of
whom, perhaps, do more for hunting in proportion
to their means than some members of the hunt
they are visiting. Let me put a case. A man

M

162 THE SPORT OF KINGS

owns a little land in one hunt, and a little land
in another. On both these small estates there is
a fox covert well looked after ; his tenants send
in no poultry bills ; they have no wire on their
farms, and they do everything to second him in
his efforts to provide sport for his friends. Circum-
stances compel him to hunt with other hounds than
those in whose countries his coverts are situate, and
he subscribes to the pack he hunts with. Should
he be on a visit to a friend in some fourth country,
it would, in my opinion, be not only inhospi-
table, but grossly unfair to ask him for a heavy
" cap," nor would it tend to the benefit of fox-
hunting.

Yet I am an advocate for "capping" if
judiciously gone about. But the amount asked
for should be small, and I would ask every one for
it except the farmers, whether they were members
of the hunt or not. This plan is adopted in
Ireland, where 2s. 6d. is demanded from each man
who goes out, and is cheerfully paid. Farmers, of
course, are exempt, but no one else, whatever may
be his station. A considerable sum of money is
thus realised ; a four-days-a-week country would,
allowing for a month's frost, make £1000, with an
average of 100 out per day, which is not a very
large one in these days.

And then there is another phase of the question.
If you ask a man who goes out on horseback
for 2s. 6d., should you let those who go out in
carriages, on bicycles, or on foot, go scot free ? I
am inclined to think they should all be " asked for
a bit," for they enjoy the sport, or they would not
come out, and they do some harm in their generation.
There are liberal supporters of hunting who go

CAPPING 163

out in carriages, and even on bicycles, and on
foot on occasion, and I am one of those who
like to see carriages and foot people out ; but
if you come at one class of sportsmen, why not at
another ?

CHAPTER XXVIII

HUNTING ON FOOT

" Fox-hunting on foot is but labour in vain,"
says Egerton Warburton in that spirit-stirring
song, " Oulton Lowe," and who is there that has
laboured in breeches and boots over a deep fallow,
the boots just a trifle small, i.e. tight, that will be
found to deny the fact ? Yet there is a good deal
of sport of a very enjoyable kind seen on foot, and
when a man is young and active and his wind is
good he can get a lot of enjoyment out of a day
on shanks' mare, and see more sport than the
man who has never seen the sport of kings save
from the back of a 200-guinea hunter wots of.
Then there are hunting countries, though perhaps
your sportsman who hunts in the so-called fashion-
able centres may scarcely think them worthy of the
name, where hunting on foot is the only way in
which the wily fox can be pursued. The Blen-
cathra, the Eskdale (Cumberland), the Coniston,
the Ullswater, and the Mellbrake are amongst the
packs which show the best of sport with the " girt
greyhound foxes " of the Cumberland and West-
moreland fells. " And who can tell how hard it
is to climb " those steep hillsides at any pace, let
alone at the swinging trot affected by the hardy

HUNTING ON FOOT 165

dalesmen. In these countries it must be said that
a good cry is indispensable, and probably in the
lowlands their hounds would be called noisy.
They certainly are " rum 'uns to look at " ; equally
certain is it that they are "good 'uns to go," and
their drive is remarkable, whilst they account for
their foxes in a workmanlike manner. I have
never had a day's hunting with any of these packs.
I must say that hill-climbing is not much in my line,
and that I prefer the four legs of a stout hunter, 15.3,
and a blood one, to my own two to carry me to
hounds. But I have seen a hound trail and a fell
race in the dales, and a more sporting way of spend-
ing an hour or two I do not know of. In the
hound trail some eight or ten hounds started, and
the trail would be at least five miles, but it looked
more like six. The start was in a valley, then it
took to the right, running up one fell side for
some distance, crossing the valley again and return-
ing to the field whence it had started on the
opposite side of the valley. By this arrangement
it was possible, by means of a good field glass, to
see everything hounds were doing, and their cheery
cry could always be heard, for it is astonishing
how the hills echo it back. The pace they ran at
was a very fast one, perhaps faster than it would
have been had they been running fox, and I should
not omit to mention that I was informed that the
hounds which were used for the hound trails were
never taken out hunting, as they were unreliable.
But the fell race gave one the best notion of hunt-
ing on foot as conducted in the dales, that is to
say, it gave one some idea of the speed and
endurance of those best of good sportsmen, the
Cumberland " Statesmen." Some dozen athletic-

1 66 THE SPORT OF KINGS

looking young fellows set out on the journey,
which was some three miles, and, with the excep-
tion of the run in, was all either up hill or down.
At a long stretching trot, a pace which covers
ground in a remarkably short time, they started up
hill, rounded a flag some mile and a half off, and
then ran down the hill, jumping from crag to crag
in a way simply marvellous to one from a low
country. They came in in rather straggling order,
but they did not seem to be distressed, not even
the gentleman who "walked in with the crowd."
He had been out-paced, that was all, and in a
short time I make no doubt they would have all
been ready for another run. Yet mark the folly
of our modern busybodies. Said one of the com-
petitors to me, " They want to stop our fell races ;
they say it is cruel to us and injurious. Injurious,"
he added, slapping his chest with his brawny arms,
"look at me after the race," and I may add that
he was not the winner, and that he had not, in
racing parlance, turned a hair.

It goes without saying that those who hunt on
foot on Cumbrian and Westmoreland fells must
often do a good deal by ear. In the first place
there is a great deal of covert ; then hounds must,
through covering a great deal more ground than
their followers, travel very much faster. But the
dalesman's skill in woodcraft, his quick ear and
keen eye, when it has a chance of being called
into request, and his intuitive knowledge of
the probable run of a fox, always serve him in
good stead, and he generally succeeds in getting to
the end of the run. And even then his labours
are far from being ended. In such a country
earth-stopping is difficult, and in many places it is

HUNTING ON FOOT 167

impossible to carry it out effectually. So that after
a long and tiring run, those who first arrive on the
scene frequently find hounds baying at a hole in
the rocks. There is no thought of leaving him,
he must be got if possible. Terriers are sent in,
and the work of excavation, frequently a long and
weary one, begins. On one occasion I was in-
formed by their huntsman, " Owd Tommy
Dobson," it was seventeen hours and a half from
the time they found in the morning to the time
they got to their fox and killed him.

For there is no compunction about killing a fox
with these gallant sportsmen. The hill foxes play
havoc with the lambs in a stormy spring, and it
reflects the greatest credit on the hill farmers that
they only kill the fox in the legitimate way, an
example which might well be followed in some
of the more fashionable districts where farmers
and others do derive some benefit from hunting
visitors.

I may add that until a few years ago the Courts
Leet used to pay the huntsman 10s. for each brush
he produced at its sitting, a survival doubtless of
the "wolf-geld," but this has been abolished, and
Tommy Dobson says " he doesn't see what good
them coorts are noo."

CHAPTER XXIX

THE RUNNER

No hunt would be complete without a "runner,"
and no hunt is ever long without one, though I do
not remember coming across any hunt that had
two. One may be tolerated, but two would be
unbearable, for though the runner is a good sports-
man, and very useful upon occasion, he is not
always a desirable companion, though there are, of
course, exceptions. On an opening day, which is
one of his harvests, he is a great man indeed.
Dressed in a cast-off scarlet, which is generally far
from being shabby, with a two-season-old hunting
cap on his head, white breeches, and leather
leggings, the gift all of them of various members
of the hunt or their servants, he on that occasion
presents a truly imposing spectacle. He will be at
the meet before the first horseman arrives, though
he may have had to tramp a dozen miles or more
to get there. If the fixture is at some country
house it is certain that he will have made friends
with the butler by telling him of some piece of
country gossip, and he will have had his reward in
the shape of a good lump of beef and bread and a
pint of beer. Should, however, the fixture be at
some village, he is sure to find congenial company
in some taproom, where he will entertain all and
sundry with incidents of interest connected with

THE RUNNER 169

the entry and the cub-hunting, on both of which
he is by no means a bad authority. But to his
credit be it said that on these occasions he never
breathes a word about the whereabouts of foxes.
On this point he is oracular, and on no account
will he be drawn to tell what he knows. For that
he does know is certain ; and there is little in
connection with the hunt and its management on
which he does not possess information or form a
pretty shrewd opinion of his own. But however
he may have obtained his information he is par-
ticularly discreet as to whom he imparts it, and
when hunt secrets become public property it is
rarely indeed that the dissemination of them can
be traced to the runner. The moment the field
begins to arrive social enjoyment is put to one
side. Assuming the cap of office, the runner takes
up his position on village green or in park, and
commences the serious business of the day. For
every one he has a friendly greeting, from the duke
to the farmer and tradesman he misses none,
though he has a very shrewd idea of the due order
of precedence, his pocket being a guide which
never fails him. Who so ready as he to tighten a
girth, take up or let out a link in a curb chain, or
perform some of those odd offices in which a man
on foot can be of use to a man on horseback ? He
will hold horses or look for hunters when men
arrive on their steaming hacks, and his politeness
to his clients is proverbial. With the Master he
has some minutes' confidential talk, as in duty
bound, and the huntsman also comes in for his
serious attention, but if he be an old hand the
whippers-in are passed by with a cheery nod and
pleasant good-morning.

i/o THE SPORT OF KINGS

On the opening day he does not beg; indeed,
he would scorn the imputation at any time, though
he is not above giving a friendly hint on occasions
when funds wax low. But his pockets get fairly
well filled, and many a shilling and sixpence go
into them from his wealthier patrons to mix with
the coppers of his poorer friends ; for the runner
is a privileged character, and every one contributes
a little to his maintenance.

That he is a ne'er-do-well is admitted on all
hands, and though he appears in glorious apparel at
the opening meet, it is a wonder to every one how he
has lived through the summer months. His old
haunts — his winter haunts, that is — have not known
him, and it seems only with hunting men that he
can make any headway ; whilst work he cannot, or
will not, which comes to much the same thing in
the end. Indeed, most of his patrons have not
seen him since the last day of the season, which
with him is also a day of ingathering.

Ne'er-do-well as he is, he is a sportsman, and
you may be sure that if there is any fun he will see
something of it. Indeed, some runners get over
the ground so well, and their knowledge of the
country is so good, that they can see a great deal
of the sport in all but flying countries, and not
infrequently they manage to see the afternoon's
draw.

Then, as night approaches, he sets off on his
homeward tramp, for your runner carefully eschews
trains. The glowing lights of some roadside
public-house throw out a tempting invitation. He
is soon in the taproom, a chunk of bread and
cheese and a pint of ale before him. This
despatched, he begins to regale the company with

THE RUNNER 171

choice anecdote, for he is a born entertainer, this
runner of ours. Then another pint of ale is set
before him, and then another — he does not pay for
them, mind — until at last his speech begins to come
thick, and he turns into an outhouse to pass the
night as best he may.

Yes, I am afraid our runner is a thorough
scamp, but he has redeeming qualities. He speaks
the truth ; he is discreet in many things, telling no
man's secrets — no secrets of the hunt at any rate ;
he is scrupulously honest, and he is a sportsman.
Let us then not cast a stone at him, but give him
sixpence now and again, even if he be impudent
when in his cups.

But there is a runner of another type, a type
which is scarce, I admit, but which nevertheless
does exist in many countries, and of which I have
known one or two specimens myself. Our runner
is of a higher social scale than the man whom I
have already described. Not only is he not above
earning his living, but, as a rule, he is an indus-
trious and capable man. He generally belongs to
the small farmer or village tradesman class ; he
boasts, when his tongue is loosened, for he is not
given to be communicative as a rule, that his

" fore elders " had been connected with the

Hunt for generations, and he looks upon himself
as part and parcel of the hunt establishment.
There is nothing of the scapegrace about him ;
indeed, I have known one of the class a teetotaler ;
but I should say that this is a rare occurrence. He
never begs or even hints at such a thing as a
present, save and except that he will ask for a cast-
off scarlet coat, which is kept with scrupulous
neatness. His breeches, generally of corduroy, are

172 THE SPORT OF KINGS

well fitting, his boots and leggings clean, and his
hat or velvet cap — he rather affects the latter if he
can get one — is spotless. He has not yet got to
the white-tie stage ; at least I have never known
one of his cloth to sport a white tie. Neither is
the gaudy-coloured, cheap silk abomination affected
by him. His neck covering takes one back into
the long ago, and his choice lies between a wisp of
black silk put loosely twice round his neck and tied
in a small bow or a woollen " comforter," generally
of the "shepherd's plaid" pattern. Gloves he
never affects ; indeed, it is questionable whether
he ever had a pair on in his life, but I have, in
very cold weather, seen his hands partly protected
by muffatees coming well down. His stick,
generally an oak or a hazel, is of his own cutting
and trimming, and is as serviceable and hard-
looking as he is himself.

I have said that he is a man who scorns to ask
or hint at such a thing as a money present, but
when a hunt is lucky enough to have such a
" runner " as he is attached to it, there are countless
ways in which benefits can be rendered to him
without wounding his pride. Not infrequently I
have known him deputed to look after certain
drains and earths haunted on occasion by foxes
when those earths and drains are out of the beat of
the regular keeper, and he is occasionally sent on
messages of importance, for which work, of course,
he is well paid. There is one article in his creed,
and that is that when hounds are out there it is his
duty to be, and I have heard men of his class say
that they scarcely have missed a day for seasons.

Now just imagine for one moment what this
means for a poor man who is obliged to work hard

THE RUNNER 173

for his living, and who does it. Wealthy men too
frequently grumble when asked for an extra ^25
subscription to meet a pressing emergency, and
say they pay plenty for their sport ; but who pays
so much for his sport as the " runner " of whom I
am writing ? The loss of a day's work means to
him that he has to make up for it by working
when others are resting, or that he or his family
will probably want something that they ought to
have. To his credit be it said that the latter is of
very rare occurrence. And then this man does
many little services for the hunt for which he is
never paid. He will go a mile or two out of his
way to open earths that might and probably would
otherwise remain unopened till the next day, and
in countless ways he is always proving of use.

It has always been a wonder to me how the man
manages to get over the distances which he travels,
and with apparently so little fatigue to himself.
He frequently has from twelve to sixteen miles to
walk to covert ; he will be out all day, and he
will tramp the same distance home at night. He
is not the man to stop at a roadside public,
regaling the ears of the taproom visitors with
accounts of sport and tales of sportsmen. He
will have his pint of beer, for which he will always
offer to pay himself, drop a curt word or two as
to whether sport has been good or bad, and
trudge off homewards, for probably there is a
pair of boots to be mended or finished, for your
runner of this class is somehow very frequently a
cordwainer.

When you can get him to talk, our friend is
entertaining indeed. But he has a rooted aversion
to being " interviewed," and when any one attempts

174 THE SPORT OF KINGS

to " draw " him, he has the finest talent for holding
his tongue of any man I ever met. His is a life
of hardship ; he is exposed to all the vicissitudes
of a changeable climate, and he pays a big price
for the limited amount of sport which he is enabled
to see. Yet he is, perhaps, to be envied after all.
He is a thorough sportsman at heart, and no
scarlet-clad hero, mounted on a 300-guinea hunter,
enjoys his share of the sport with a keener zest
than does our runner. He is, moreover, a hound
man and a naturalist. He is thoroughly at home
in the kennel, where, on account of the numberless
good offices he does, he is a welcome guest. He
knows the hounds, though, of course, he is not an
expert with their pedigrees, and he can tell whether
they are right during the early days of cub-hunting
by their cry, which is more than many a bold
sportsman can do. An observant man, he knows
the habits of all game and wild animals in a
remarkable degree, yet I have never known him
to be a poacher. He is, however, invaluable as a
beater at a " big shoot," and the keeper knows
how well he can manage the rest of the beaters,
and puts his trust in him accordingly. Yes, on the
whole, his lines are cast in pleasant places, for he
has the respect of his social superiors and equals.
He is the terror of the wrongdoer in the hunting
field, and he has gathered up a store of sporting
lore which, to a man of his temperament, must be
an everlasting fund of entertainment when no longer
able to follow his favourite pack.

CHAPTER XXX

WITH A STRANGE PACK

One of the pleasantest features of fox-hunting is
that there is so little jealousy about it. Jealous
riding there may be, but that is a very different
thing, and though too much of it is to be depre-
cated, a little of it gives that spice to the sport
which is one of its great fascinations. But the
hunting man is not jealous in the same way that
the man whose sport is of a solitary nature too
frequently is ; he does not look upon his neigh-
bour with quite the same eyes, and he regards the
stranger as one of the craft. Nor is the reason of
this far to seek. Hunting, as conducted in this
country, is emphatically a social sport ; times in a
week the same men meet in pursuit of the same
object, and so they welcome a stranger when he
comes to visit them with a heartiness which is
typical. That is, the bulk of them do, for I have
known countries in which a stranger was looked
upon with suspicion, and in which the Master and
his followers seemed always on the point of saying,
" Why comes this prophet amongst us ? " This,
however, is the rare exception, and it must be
admitted that there are some who pose as visitors
to whom the cold shoulder should be shown. For
there are men who go about from country to

176 THE SPORT OF KINGS

country, never subscribing a farthing to hounds
or to poultry fund, and who turn a deaf ear to all
the legitimate demands made upon them. These
gentlemen form one of the difficulties of modern
hunting, and they are a thorn in the side of
masters of hounds and secretaries. It is for their
behoof that the system of capping is being revived
in some countries, a system which is certainly an
ungracious one, though it is not easy to see how
otherwise to meet what is admitted on all hands to
be a great and growing evil.

Such men as these are, however, not to be
looked upon as visitors in the true sense of the
word, and with them I have nothing to do here.
Strongly as I advocate a man hunting from his
own home, I think that every hunting man should,
when opportunity offers, try to see other packs
and other countries. By so doing he will enlarge
his knowledge of the sport, he will get to know
other methods, and he will make a vast number of
new friends, with whom he will have at least one
object in common. He will also store up for
himself many pleasant memories ; hounds and
horses whose names will live in history may have
become more or less familiar to him, and unless he
is very unfortunate he will have met with, and
seen, and talked to some of the most skilled ex-
ponents of the Noble Science.

I am inclined to think that to get a correct
idea of a strange pack of hounds it is by no means
necessary to go into their best country, or put
oneself to all sorts of inconvenience to reach a
favourite fixture. In the first place, at the
favourite fixture there is sure to be a crowd, and
I take it that it is the hounds that are the object

WITH A STRANGE PACK 177

of the visit and not the crowd. Therefore it is
as well to avoid what is known as the fashionable
meets. For my own part, when visiting a strange
pack I like to get into that part of the country
where the individuality of hounds and huntsman
has the best chance of showing itself. Over a fine
grass country, with a flying scent, and a hard-
riding field behind them there is less difference
between the various packs than when in the country
in which they most frequently hunt, and there is
also less chance of seeing hounds work. I know
men who will not go on to the wolds or the moors
in the country which is peculiarly their own, and
who, when their own pack is in what is to them
an undesirable locality, take the opportunity of
paying a visit to a neighbouring pack. These
gentlemen lose more than they wot of. Certainly
there is much pleasure to be gained from a good
run over wold or moor, and hunting in each place
has peculiarities which cannot fail to strike any
observant eye. Indeed, I know of no prettier
sight than hounds running hard over a moor,
which they generally do in the spring. The
proper time to visit the wolds, especially if there
should be, as is frequently the case, a large pro-
portion of plough on them, is before Christmas,
indeed, as early in November as possible, for
though the wolds often have a bad name as scent-
ing ground, they generally carry a good scent after
the October rains have come, and before they are
ploughed. When the plough has done its work,
as on all light ploughed land, scent is uncertain.
But a day in the plough country is sure to be
appreciated by the lover of hounds. If a large
portion of the country of the pack to be visited

N

178 THE SPORT OF KINGS

consists of big woodlands, by all means contrive
to time your visit so that you may see hounds at
work in the woods. It by no means implies that
the woods will never be left all day. For hounds
that are used to the work very frequently drive
woodland foxes out into the open when there is a
scent, and at times they are not long about doing
it. So when hunting with a good pack of hounds
in a woodland country it is necessary to keep a
sharp look-out, and advisable to select a native of
the country as a pilot.

The few days a man gets with strange packs
make him all the keener to hunt with his own,
and add to his season's enjoyment in no small
degree. The visit also tends to rub the rust off,
a little of which will accumulate at times, and to
promote the amenities which should exist between
brother sportsmen. That it does the latter
thoroughly the following incident illustrates.
I was hunting in a strange country when the
Master, with whom I was acquainted, said, " If
hounds should find here, don't go down the far
side of the covert, as you will find yourself
pounded," a courtesy which was highly appreciated,
and which made us firm friends at once.

CHAPTER XXXI

WITH A FARMER'S PACK

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world,

is a maxim which applies to fox-hunting as to most
other things in this world. We may look back
with enthusiastic admiration to the days of old ;
we may regret that old customs and old methods
are now no longer practicable ; but we must re-
cognise that the altered state of society renders it
impossible for our sports to be carried on as they
were fifty or even thirty years ago. A story is
told of a farmer who attributed all the misfortunes
which befell in his neighbourhood to " them
dratted railways," and it is to the material pro-
gress which has been made during the last fifty
years, of which the railway and telegraph form
perhaps the most striking examples, that the
difference in our hunting customs is chiefly due,
and it is to that that the gradual decrease in the
numbers of farmers' hunts must be attributed.

Fox-hunting in its modern development is a
much more expensive sport than was formerly the
case. To begin with, fields have more than quad-
rupled in size, and even in remote and so-called
unfashionable countries they are numbered by

180 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hundreds. Not long ago I met a pack of hounds
at what was always looked upon as one of the
worst fixtures. There was quite a strong muster,
some fifty or sixty horsemen. I can remember
the time when there would not have been more
than a dozen. In another and more fashionable
district, and with another pack of hounds, the
field numbered nearly three hundred. Fifty years
ago, and even more recently than fifty years ago,
seventy or eighty would have been looked upon
as a good field. These facts, combined with the
improvement in agriculture, the enclosing of land,
the cheapness of wire fencing, and the agricultural
depression, necessitating a policy of economy in
the management of farms, have tended to do away
with the old farmers' hunts, which did so much
for the sport in the early years of the century. It
is necessary now that a Master of Hounds should
have leisure, plenty of money, and an inclination
to spend it liberally in the country over which he
presides. Then there are poultry and damage
funds, which require feeding, and which need the
supervision of energetic secretaries, and altogether
a great amount of ability and tact is now required
to keep a country going which not so many years
ago kept itself going. It is not that the sporting
spirit is dying out in the places to which I am
referring. That, I am happy to say, is as strong
as ever it was. But circumstances have taken
place which compel it to be exercised in a different
way, and though we may lament the necessity for
it, we must recognise the fact that gradually the
hunt managed exclusively, or almost exclusively,
by farmers is dying out in the land. The farmers,
however, still continue to take an active interest in

WITH A FARMER'S PACK 181

the hunt and its management, but the old rough-
and-ready establishment with hounds uneven, many
of them not straight, but rare workers, establish-
ments which showed a lot of sport, are now re-
placed by hounds that would make a creditable
appearance at Peterborough, and the servants are
turned out with a smartness that was at one time
only associated with fashionable countries. Sport
is, perhaps, not any better than in the brave days
of old, but it is only under altered conditions that
it is now possible.

They were cheery fellows, the members and
managers of the old-fashioned farmers' hunts.
Hospitable to a fault, keen enough to merit the
approbation of a Jorrocks, good horsemen and
bold, and with a fine knowledge of woodcraft,
they hunted the out-of-the-way districts in which
they lived with energy and skill. In one hunt
I know for many years the subscription did not
amount to more than £50, and when at last it was
increased to ^260, boundless wealth seemed the
portion of the hunt. But a country could not be
hunted five days a fortnight, or three days a week,
on four times that amount nowadays. The amount
I have mentioned, £260 per annum, was paid to
the Master, who found everything save the keepers'
fees, covert rents, and poultry damages. These
were paid by the hunt, and it is needless to say
that covert rents were only nominal, there being
but one gorse covert for which any rent was paid.
Poultry damages were also a very small item, and
it was only in exceptional cases that any money
was paid. All demands were carefully examined,
and presents were made of various kinds, the result
being that generally every one was satisfied. For,

1 82 THE SPORT OF KINGS

for the amount of money which was expended, the
recipients of the presents got good value ; some of
the principal tradesmen in the district were good
sportsmen, and gave the hunt the privilege of
wholesale prices, so many a worthy lady found
herself the owner of a black silk dress which cost
the hunt some £2 or ^3 less than she would have
had to give for it. This system answered well
when times were good, and when the hunt and
the men who hunted were, with a few trifling ex-
ceptions, farmers, and the friends and relatives of
those whose poultry had been tithed. Such a
system could not prevail when fields began to in-
crease in size, when men wanted another day a
week, and when, as a consequence, the stock of
foxes increased. Indeed, everything tended to the
change which eventually became inevitable.

Yet they were cheery times, those of which I
speak. During the summer most of the hounds,
with the exception of the entry, were out at
quarters, and they were generally gathered in
about the first week in August. Early cub-hunt-
ing was unknown, and seldom did hounds take
the field before the last week in September or the
first in October. By that time they had got licked
into shape, though occasionally there was a little
wildness amongst the younger of them. The
Master hunted the hounds himself, and though
I have seen many a huntsman in my time, I don't
think I ever saw a better man, especially in a
woodland country. He kept two horses for his
own riding, and one for his - whipper-in, who was
always a youngster who had to do the horses as
well as look after the kennel, though he had a man
to help him. This whipper-in was always a light

WITH A FARMER'S PACK 183

weight, and one horse had to do for him, though
he occasionally had a mount given. He really
did second whipper-in's work, the duties of the
first whipper-in being undertaken in the field by a
man who took a prominent part in the manage-
ment of the affairs of the hunt, and who was
himself no incapable huntsman when his services
were required. Then there were always a lot of
young farmers ready and willing to do anything
they were asked, and an excellent average of sport
was shown. It was a capital school for whippers-
in, for the Master had plenty of time on his hands,
and was always keen to impart instruction if his
lad was of an inquiring mind. The result was
that two of his whippers-in became huntsmen who
made for themselves a name, whilst a third was a
whipper-in of great merit, and one who only missed
a good huntsman's place by an accident.

It stands to reason that the social element
entered largely into such a hunt in the off season.
There was, of course, the hunt dinner, a function
which has fallen into desuetude, but which might
be revived with advantage. Then at show and
race meeting the well-to-do farmers in the neigh-
bourhood entertained their hunting friends right
royally, and as the hunting season approached
these social gatherings became sort of informal
committee meetings, at which matters connected
with the welfare of the hunt were freely discussed.
Then once a year the Master gave a ball to the
young folk of his hunt, it being a sine qud non
that no married folk, save one or two privileged
people, were to be guests. Merry little dances
they were, and heartily were they appreciated.
Yes, " the world went very well then," and though

1 84 THE SPORT OF KINGS

I certainly recognise the fact that such conditions
could not obtain in the country now, I cannot help
feeling some regret for the customs of the days
that are gone. But Le Roi est mort; vive le Roil
The horn of the hunter is still heard in the land,
good sport prevails, and good fellowship, and, after
all, what more can mortal wish for ?

CHAPTER XXXII

THE HUNTING PARSON

A strong prejudice undoubtedly exists in some
circles against the parson who takes his amuse-
ment and relaxation from an arduous vocation by
hunting a day or two in the week. Nor is this
prejudice confined to a narrow puritanical school —
copies of Luther in the pasteboard style — lean anti-
everythings, as Oliver Wendell Holmes has so fitly
called them. Men otherwise broad-minded and
charitable enough, who will cheer the parson when
he makes his century at cricket, who will ask him
to lawn-tennis parties, who will join with him in a
mild pool or a mild rubber at their own houses,
will tell you gravely when they hear of a parson
distinguishing himself in the hunting field, that
" it is not clerical." Why it is not clerical, I for
the life of me cannot imagine. For my own part
I see no difference between one sport or recreation
and another. If it is not clerical to hunt, neither
is it clerical to shoot or to play cricket, or to play
lawn tennis or any other game, hunting only
differing from these sports and pastimes inasmuch
as it calls forth in more marked manner nerve,
decision, and self-reliance. This being the case,
I should say that it is the sport of all others which
a parson should affect, especially if his lot be cast

186 THE SPORT OF KINGS

amongst those to whom the horn of the huntsman
and the cry of the pack is the sweetest of music.
I remember a parson — I like the fine old word
" parson," and he had a strong dislike to the modern
euphuisms of " clergyman " and " minister " —
who, in returning thanks to the toast of " The
Clergy," said that there was no need for him
to make excuses for being a sportsman, for sport
was part, and a great part, of the national character,
and in his opinion a parson was not well fitted for
his duties unless he was himself a sportsman, and
was thus able to thoroughly sympathise with those
amongst whom his lot was cast. With that opinion
I entirely agree.

But to return to the hunting parson. Perhaps
the prejudice against the parson hunting may date
back to the early Georgian times, when manners
were as corrupt and dissipated as at the time of the
Restoration, without the wit and elegance which
characterised the later years of the Stuarts, and
when the private chaplain of the country squire
hunted, brewed the punch, and was by no means a
credit to his cloth. I have, however, a sneaking
fancy that some of it may be traced to the Rev.
Sydney Smith, who, when he came into Yorkshire,
found himself rather out of his element amongst
his clerical brethren of the East Riding, all of
whom were keen horsemen, and most of them
good ones. Sydney Smith was a bad horseman,
and was in misery when across a horse, and he
gave utterance to the opinion that " a parish
priest had no business to ride." I don't wish
to be uncharitable, but I fancy that if he had
been as great a horseman as he was a wit, he
would have said that " every parish priest ought

THE HUNTING PARSON 187

to ride." Archbishop Harcourt, who ruled over
the see of York wisely and well for many years,
once asked him if he thought it permissible for
an Archbishop to ride, and the reply was, " Yes,
if he did not ride too well." The Archbishop,
who was a fine horseman and a keen sportsman,
gave Sydney Smith his first preferment.

I think that all whose privilege it was to know
him, or who have read his inimitable books, or
who have studied the story of his life of self-
sacrifice and devotion to his profession, will admit
that Canon Kingsley was an honour to the Church
of which he was a member. Canon Kingsley was
a sportsman in the best sense of the word : by
riverside he was an expert ; in the hunting field
he could hold his own with the best, and he relates
how, long after he had given up riding to hounds,
he went out on his old cob to see hounds draw a
covert. They found, there was a scent, hounds
came driving past with a hard-riding field in their
wake, and as he watched them in their career he
felt a pride and a pleasure in the knowledge that
his friends knew that he could ride.

It is a remarkable fact that when a parson does
hunt he is generally a finished horseman. Some,
of course, who take to the sport late in life, with
the special object, perhaps, of looking after their
youngsters, can scarcely be said to witch the world
with noble horsemanship, but I reckon amongst
my hunting friends many parsons, and certainly a
large proportion of them can hold their own with
any layman, however good he may be. One I
have in my mind's eye now, whom I have seen
go well in many countries. Raw youngster,
finished and perfect hunter, tricky hireling, he

i88 THE SPORT OF KINGS

got them all over a country, and in a good
place too. Plough or pasture was all the same
to him, and he kept his nerve longer than most
men. And in his profession, who so earnest as
he ; who so welcome in the cottages of the poor
and the home of the ailing ; who so prodigal of
his own goods in relieving the necessities of others ?
Hard-working parish priest and polished gentle-
man, it would have been cruel, indeed, to prevent
him taking a few hours' necessary exercise and
recreation in the way congenial to his own tastes.
I look upon this fox-hunting friend of mine as a
model for imitation.

A hunting parson, however, needs to be careful
how he hunts when professional duties call him at
a given hour on a hunting day. A gentleman of
my acquaintance had just gone to a new neighbour-
hood, and hounds met close at hand. They found
at once, and had one of those great runs which
only happen now and again, and the fox had been
broken up. My friend asked, " How far is it to
X. ? " Judge of his dismay when he was told that
he was some seventeen miles off, for he had a
funeral at three, and it was well past one o'clock.
His horse was done to a turn, and when he told
his trouble he was informed that it was impossible
to get to X. in time. So it was on the horse he
was riding, but a good fellow who was present
helped him out of his difficulty by borrowing a
fresh horse for him, and he arrived home in
ample time for the funeral. But since then he
has been very careful about hunting in a country
he does not know when he chances to have an
appointment.

CHAPTER XXXIII

HUNTING LADIES

At one time, and not so many years ago either,
the lady who rode to hounds was generally looked
upon with mingled feelings of awe and horror by
those of her own sex. It was woman's province,
according to the satirists who attacked her, to stay
at home and look pretty, and to attend to her
domestic duties. Even so good a sportsman as
the author of one of those Warwickshire hunt
songs, for which the country presided over by
Lord Willoughby de Broke is famous, writes in
a deprecatory manner of ladies hunting. Says
he, addressing the ladies : —

Be yours the lyre, the dance, the song,
Whilst we the chase retain.

Now with these sentiments I by no means agree,
nor do I believe in ladies being obliged to come
out in " the pretty young lady " fashion of a by-
gone day, under the charge of a stout old coach-
man, and with strict instructions not to jump a
fence. I like to see ladies going to hounds fear-
lessly and well ; the presence of ladies in the
hunting field can only tend to the benefit of
the sport, and that more ladies are taking to
hunting every day, and taking pains to under-

190 THE SPORT OF KINGS

stand it, is, in my humble opinion, a healthy
sign. There is the lady bruiser, she who is
described in the words of a well-known writer
as " a nice girl enough when she is sitting in a
chair, but when she is hunting she crosses you
at your fences and jumps on you when you are
down." Fortunately ladies of this stamp are few
and far between, but when they are to be met
with they are unfortunately more objectionable
than their brothers of the same class. For they
are more reckless, they think that they can commit
sins against the ordinary canons of hunting law
without being brought to book, and that their
sex protects them from the scolding they so
thoroughly deserve. Sometimes it does and some-
times it does not, as you shall hear. I have a
lively recollection of being charged when in mid-air
by an enterprising young lady who had bucketed
her horse till she had lost control of him, and of
both horses rolling over me, and also of the fact
that the young lady received all the sympathy,
though she was uninjured, whilst I was unable to
get any hunting for some days. Another instance
of a lady " cutting in " came under my notice.
Hounds had been running hard for some thirty
minutes over a big country ; it was early in the
season, the ditches were full of grass and very blind,
and anything like taking a liberty with a fence
meant almost certain disaster. A man, well known
in every country in which he has hunted — and he
has hunted in a great many — as a bold and fearless
rider, was going well, as usual, and close on his
heels came a fearless young lady, who raced her
horse past him when he was within two or three
lengths of the fence and jumped at it sideways

HUNTING LADIES 191

just in front of him. He said nothing at the
time, but if that lady thought she was going to
escape without a reproof she was very much mis-
taken. When the fox was killed he rode up to
the delinquent, and anything more cutting than
his quiet sarcasm I have never heard in the hunting
field. " If you cannot control your horse," he
said, " your friends should get you another or see
that this one is so bitted that you can hold
him. There is no excuse for you crossing any-
one at a fence as you did me. Had your
horse fallen I might have killed you. It would
not have been my fault, it is true, but it would
have destroyed my pleasure in the sport for
ever. In hunting, as in other walks of life, it
is your duty to consider others." Then raising
his hat he left the lady, who, I am glad to
say, profited by the advice which had been given
her.

It is a mistake to think that ladies know
nothing about the minutiae of hunting, and that
woodcraft to them is an unknown mystery. I
think that there is quite as large a percentage of
ladies who go hunting who can tell you when
hounds have a line and what hounds have it, when
the young ones are running riot, and when by
some unlucky accident they are running heel, as
there is of the sterner sex, and I know several
ladies whose word I would take, were I a hunts-
man, quite as soon as that of any man. Such
knowledge is unnecessary and unladylike, I hear
some prudish-minded person say. Not at all, I
say. Anything worth doing is worth doing well ;
the woman who studies woodcraft and understands
the niceties of the sport not only enjoys it more,

192 THE SPORT OF KINGS

but from the very fact that she has the intelligence
and energy to master a not very easy subject it
may be safely laid down that such of the duties of
life as fall to her lot will be efficiently and cheer-
fully performed. I have known hunting ladies
in different social positions who were fine horse-
women and accomplished sportswomen, who in
every relation of life were successful, respected,
and beloved.

I knew one, the daughter of a farmer not too
well endowed with this world's goods, who used to
school her father's chasers, and school them to
some purpose too, and more than one persistent
refuser did she turn into a reliable jumper, thereby
bringing grist to the family mill. As a manager,
as a business woman, in the drawing-room, and as
a daughter and a wife, she was an example to many
of the effete school who look on the hunting
woman as masculine.

A hunting lady whom I do not care to meet in
the field is the hard funker. She may not be
quite so bad as the bruising rider to whom I
have already referred, but she is by no means a
pleasant companion to have by your side when
hounds are running hard over a big country. She
goes at all her fences as hard as she can gallop, and
depend upon it that Assheton Smith's dictum, that
whoever rides very fast at a fence is funking it, is
true. This can only last so long, and it is sure to
end in the long run with a nasty fall if the horse
keeps on jumping. But generally this is what he
does not do. After going so far he refuses,
frequently just in front of you, and at one of
the few practicable places in the fence. You
have to pull your horse out of his stride, which,

HUNTING LADIES 193

when he is beginning to feel the pace, upsets
his temper, and you lose much valuable ground,
which upsets your own. Avoid by all means
the hard funker of either sex, but particularly if
a lady.

0

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE MAN WHO HUNTS FROM TOWN

A friend of mine, himself a good sportsman, once
observed to me when speaking of a mutual
acquaintance, " So-and-so has no business to hunt
— coming out and riding over people's land. He
does not own nor occupy an acre, and on that
account has no business in the hunting field." I
pointed out to my friend that the fact of a man
owning or occupying land scarcely gave him an
inalienable right to ride over the land owned and
occupied by others. I showed him that the
gentleman in question was a good fellow, fond of
sport, a subscriber, and a man who was never in
the way. Not a very fine nor a very bold horse-
man, certainly, but he never made himself ridicu-
lous, and by all, except my prejudiced friend, he
was welcomed in the hunting field.

I take leave to say that if every hunting man
shared the prejudices of my friend, hunting would
soon cease to exist. Hunting, as a selfish sport,
would never be tolerated, and though large fields
are a constant source of anxiety to Masters of
Hounds, the theory of " the more the merrier " is
the one for hunting men to follow.

For the man who hunts from town I have a
very warm corner ; indeed, had it not been for

TOWN SPORTSMEN 195

accident I might have belonged to the body myself,
and I certainly deprecate the manner in which
some affect to treat of the sportsman who hails
from the big towns. It is true that he is probably
ignorant of the technicalities of the sport that he
loves. He may not know much of the habits of
foxes or the points of a hound, and his riding may
not be that of the finished horseman. But just let us
pause for a moment and ask ourselves the question
how much some of our country acquaintances know
of the natural history of our quarry, or how many
of them take the trouble to know one hound from
another. It is all very well to laugh at our friend
from town when he speaks to or speaks of old
Chanticleer or Bonny Lass, and say they are the only
hounds he knows, but it is better to know one hound
than none at all, and some very good men of my
acquaintance, who hunt four and five days a week,
and are always in a good place, don't know a hound
in the pack, and vote a day on the flags a bore.

The man who hunts from town is an example
of how strong the sporting spirit is implanted in
the Anglo-Saxon race. Some, of course, will tell
you that when he has become rich he takes to
hunting for fashion's sake, or to indulge in a little
pardonable vanity. For my own part, I prefer to
attribute his taking to hunting to a love of the
sport, and a sincere wish to attain some degree of
excellence in it ; and it must be owned that, con-
sidering his opportunities, he succeeds fairly well in
accomplishing that wish. I can point to many
business and professional men, the bulk of whose
life has been spent in warehouse and office, who
can hold their own when hounds run hard, even if
the fences should come thick and fast.

196 THE SPORT OF KINGS

The man who hunts from town is really one of
the great mainstays of hunting. Generally, not
always it is true, but generally he is a liberal
subscriber to the hunt of his choice. He is always
willing to join in any plan which is likely to give
pleasure to those over whose land he hunts, and he
is a good fellow, cheery, and hospitable. But he
is more than this. His healthy mind in healthy
body, the result of days spent in the saddle ; his
cheerful voice and hearty manner give the lie
direct to those maudlin humanitarians who would
put an end to all sport for the simple reason that
they have not nerve and pluck enough to join in
it themselves. For it is principally in cities,
amongst a physically idle, luxurious, and senti-
mental class that the humanitarians have their
strongholds, and the man who hunts from town is
a rare corrective. His breeziness and his practical
knowledge of the world do much to dispel the
vapours of the maudlin.

Referring for a moment to my friend's remark,
I would point out that there is in every man who
hunts from town a possible future landowner. I
need not insist upon the advantages to a hunt
when the new landowner is a man of hunting
rather than of shooting tastes. Even the ranks of
Masters of Hounds have been recruited from the
men who hunt from town, and more than one
M.F.H. who has done good service to the cause
of fox-hunting has, at any rate, commenced his
hunting career in a humble way when he did not
own an acre of land.

So by all means let hunting men give a hearty
welcome — as indeed they generally do — to the
men who hunt from town. Let them be —

TOWN SPORTSMEN 197

To their faults a little blind
And to their virtues ever kind,

for they help to foster a healthy public opinion in
favour of fox-hunting ; they keep alive the spirit of
sport, which is one of the most cherished character-
istics of our race ; and they help to develop " the
hardihood and resource which go far to the making
of the national character." The luxurious life of
cities would have a more deadly effect upon the
national character than it has were it not for the
love of sport which makes men sacrifice their ease
for the sake of a day's hunting, and were it only
for this reason we should all of us respect our
town sportsmen.

CHAPTER XXXV

SOME TYPES OF SHOOTING TENANTS

It is with respect to their relations with their hunt-
ing neighbours that I purpose to deal with shooting
tenants, who from one cause and another are
becoming a much more important factor in country
life than was at one time thought probable or even
possible. Time was when it was difficult indeed
to hire a decent shooting, and when a man for some
reason put his shooting into the market he could
afford to pick and choose amongst the numerous
applicants who were sure to come forward. I can
remember the time when some men, notwithstand-
ing their great wealth, were unable to hire a
shooting in certain districts, let their bids be never
so liberal. Unfortunately, this is no longer the
case, shootings are coming more and more into the
market, and it is the shooting tenants who can
pick and choose. I use the word " unfortunately "
advisedly, for surely it would be better in every way
— better for the owner and better for his agricul-
tural tenant — were he able to retain his own
shooting, leaving out of the question the fact that
the reason why there are so many shootings to let
is the terrible agricultural depression which seems
as if it had come to stop.

Of course, there are shooting tenants and shoot-

SHOOTING TENANTS 199

ing tenants. There is the lordly tenant of a High-
land deer forest and the man who hires — probably
from a farmer who has the game on his farm —
150 acres of mixed shooting. With the former of
these we have nothing to do here ; about the latter
I shall have a word to say. Before I begin to
speak of some types of shooting tenants, I wish it
distinctly to be understood that with the shooting
tenants as a class I have no quarrel, though there
are types of them which are certainly objectionable.
These, however, may be left for the present, and
we will turn to the shooting tenant as he ought to
be, and, I am glad to say, as he is frequently to be
found. A man whose whole sympathies and
instincts were with country life has been forced in
his youth by the severe struggle for existence to
spend his life in a crowded city engaged in
commerce, or in the arduous duties of a pro-
fession. His exertions have been crowned with
success ; he has made more or less of a pile, and
he now begins to yearn for that country life which
he feels is, after all, the life for which he was really
most fitted. He has the means for the remainder
of his life to live his own life, so to speak. During
the hard working years that are past he has not
had time to think of anything save the business in
hand ; what spare time he has had has been occupied
with recuperating for a fresh struggle with the
world. But now he feels that he can be at leisure,
and with the leisure comes longing for the old
country life of his boyhood. He has had no
means of keeping in touch with riding. He has
probably lost his nerve, and does not care to begin
de novo ; also it is not unlikely that he has grown
heavy. But though he cannot hunt, he thinks, and

200 THE SPORT OF KINGS

thinks very truly, that he can walk with the guns,
and that by dint of practice he may be able to do
something in the way of knocking over his share
of rabbits and even an old rocketer. So he
straightway looks out for a shooting, and he is not
very long in finding one. Now our typical shooting
tenant may not be possessed of any accurate know-
ledge of woodcraft, but he has strongly developed
what, for the want of a better phrase, I will call
the instincts of woodcraft. Though he recognises
that he is not able to "join the glad throng that
goes laughing along " in pursuit of that noble
animal the fox, the memory of that happy day five-
and-thirty years ago, when he went so well on
that rough-coated shaggy pony of his farmer rela-
tive, is still with him, and he recognises quite as
clearly that he must preserve foxes for his neigh-
bours. So he says to his keeper, " No fox, no
Cox," and the result is that he has both foxes and
pheasants. What can be more enjoyable than to
be an honoured guest at one of his shooting parties,
unless it is to be one at the lawn meet of the
county pack at his hospitable house. On the
former occasion you can shoot till you are tired ;
pheasants and hares and rabbits are all round you,
and there is a noble bag to contemplate at the end
of the day, for this kind of shooting tenant invites
men who can " hold straight." Of the creature
comforts I will not speak, for they are sure to be
of the best. And when there is a lawn meet you
know that it is not like some lawn meets you wot
of ; it is not merely show and parade. The grin
of delight on the face of the huntsman as he tastes
the cherry brandy handed to him, and gives ex-
pression to the hope that " they'll find one to give

SHOOTING TENANTS 201

'em another such a dusting as that fox they killed
at Thornley Beeches three weeks ago," tells you
that. And in that snug patch of gorse not half a
mile from the principal pheasant coverts they do
find such a fox. Ruddy coated and bright with
white tag to his brush, look at him as he speeds
across the pasture ! There is not a break in his
fur ; he is all that a fox should be — handsome,
alert, and bold — and as hounds come streaming
out of covert on his line he gives one whisk to his
brush and sets his mask for some distant point,
which he is as likely as not to make good. And
who so sure to be in the first flight as hounds race
over the big pastures as the son of the founder of
the feast if he be arrived at man's estate. He has
hunters of the best, you may be sure, and " the
governor," worthy man, expects him to ride them,
in which, to do young Hopeful justice, he is rarely
disappointed. That this shooting tenant comes
out with a noble subscription to the hunt, if a
subscription be needed ; that he is at once popular
with the gentry, the farmers, and the labourers it
seems unnecessary to say, and by all his neighbours
he is looked upon as an acquisition to the country.
Happy in his surroundings, and in his associations
with that country life which seemed to be a far-off
vision in the days of his youth, he is a man to
know and admire. He did his duty manfully
when it was to be done, and every one who knows
him rejoices that his lines have at last fallen in
pleasant places. Nor is this any fancy sketch that
I have been drawing. The shooting tenant of
this class is a man whom it is not difficult to meet
with. I know him well ; I have shot and eaten
his pheasants, for he gives his game away liberally.

202 THE SPORT OF KINGS

I have hunted his foxes, and, better than all, 1
have heard him dilate with pride on the prowess
of some old veteran who has beaten hounds time
after time, and who " will make some of you
fellows look out for new horses before you kill
him, by Jove, sir ! "

The next type of shooting tenant who claims
consideration is, in some respects, a mild reflection
of the good fellow of whose good qualities I have
spoken ; but in the great essentials he differs from
him. Like our friend, he has been an industrious
and hard-working man, toiling early and late ;
like him, he has succeeded in making his pile,
and, like him, he has a fancy for a country
life, and elects to take a shooting. But here
resemblance ends. His is a fancy to take to a
country life ; to our friend it was a taste inherent
in his blood. Shooting Tenant No. 2 takes
to a country life as a means to an end, the
furtherance of his political or social ambitions,
and those of his wife and daughters, who give
themselves airs that would be amusing were they
not offensive.

Now the gentleman whom we have under con-
sideration wishes to do everything en grand seig-
neur ; it is his desire to stand well with his neigh-
bours ; he probably subscribes to the local hunt ;
and he certainly entertains largely and with princely
magnificence. He says it is his wish to preserve
foxes, he invites the M.F.H. to bring his hounds
to his house for a lawn meet, where his liqueurs
are dispensed to all comers with profusion. But
everything is spoilt by his overweening sense of his
own importance ; you feel when dining with him
that you are drinking my wine and eating my

SHOOTING TENANTS 203

venison, and you consequently don't enjoy your
dinner. When you go to shoot with him you are
not at ease, for my pheasants are so much plumper
and glossier in plumage than any one else's, and my
keeper is such an " ama-azing clever fellow," that
you think it a pity to shoot them, and you let a
good few go by for the subsequent benefit of the
" ama-azing clever fellow" aforesaid.

As I have said, he poses as a fox-preserver, and
in the summer-time he talks largely of the breeds
that he has on his estate. " My foxes are all that
foxes should be," and to listen to him and his
keeper, foxes are as plentiful as leaves in Vallom-
brosa. To do him justice, there always is a breed
of foxes in his coverts, and on occasion I have
known even a couple of breeds. What comes of
them, though, is quite another matter, and is one
which is known only to his head keeper — to whom,
by the way, he is an abject slave. What takes
place is something like this : — As soon as the cubs
have got nicely on their legs the old vixen goes
away on a hunting expedition some night, and
never returns. The cubs are either taken up for
a short time or their earth wired, and they are fed
regularly till the young pheasants are well on the
wing. Then they are given their liberty, but
they are still fed, and they lead an easy life till
hounds come cub-hunting. Then there is a fine
show of cubs ; Mr. Keeper and his servant, Mr.
Shooting Tenant No. 2, see not fewer than fourteen
or fifteen ; hounds catch a brace, and everything
seems couleur de rose. This is what happens as
hounds are going home. "Jim," says our old
friend the huntsman, calling his first whipper-in
up to him, " how many foxes did you see ? "

2o4 THE SPORT OF KINGS

"Not more than two brace and a half, sir," is the
reply. " How many did you see ? " addressing
the second whipper-in. " A brace and a half, sir."
"See any old 'uns ? " (speaking to them both),
and the answer is, " No, sir." "No more did I,"
says our huntsman, and then he sums up the situa-
tion. " Four brace — killed a brace of 'em ; leaves
three brace of cubs, and no old 'uns. Shan't find
any of these when we come agen." And then he
adds, " When old Squire Topthorn lived here we
never had less than four or five breeds, and we
never came without finding."

The cub-hunting season is over, and it is quite
time that our shooting tenant's foxes should have
another bustling up. But that would never do.
My coverts have not been shot, therefore hounds
must not come into my coverts. So the weeks
pass by till the coverts are shot, and a goodly
number of the slain has been recorded in the local
papers, and then comes the great day of the lawn
meet. The shooting tenant's town friends, male
and female, muster in force, and show themselves
off* to advantage, as they think, whilst they are
gathering subject for six weeks' conversation when
they return home. It is altogether a showy scene,
but you can easily see what old Ben, the huntsman,
thinks of the proceedings by his taciturn demeanour
and the look of disgust upon his face. I should
not like to be the one of his satellites to ask for a
favour this morning, and the man would need to
have the persuasive powers of an angel to coax a
loan of a shilling from him. He listens in grim
silence to the eloquence of the man in velveteen,
who discourses fluently about the foxes he has seen
in the Oak Coppice, and the Fir Clump, and the

SHOOTING TENANTS 205

Willow Bed, and the Home Wood, and when that
worthy ceases for lack of breath, he asks shortly,
" Where'll we find to-day ? " Then comes a torrent
of advice from the keeper, who recommends the
Home Wood for the first draw. The Master
approaches, the word to move on is given, and
Master and huntsman speedily come to the under-
standing that the Home Wood shall be drawn
last. So to the Oak Coppice we proceeded, and
then to the Fir Clump, and then to the Willow
Bed, and not a sign of a fox can be discovered in
any of them. Indeed, they are nearly as con-
spicuous for their lack of pheasants, of which a
fair number were left at the shoot, and which Mr.
Velveteen tells his master have been taken by the
foxes. All the coverts have now been tried save
the Home Wood, into which we will proceed, by
your leave, with sturdy old Ben. " Yooi over
troi " shouts the veteran, as he draws acre after
acre of the covert, till it is about half drawn.
Then there is a perfect chorus of view holloas in
the middle of the wood, and Ben, in no great hurry,
trots up to the holloa. "Just by here he went,"
shouts an excited rustic, and one or two young
hounds feather and own the line, but don't look
like making much out. " What is that with
broken coat and dissipated, unkempt appearance,
with an apology for a brush, and a look of having
been up all night ever since he was born about
him ? Surely that cannot be a fox." But it is,
and Jester and Rallywood and Harlequin, gallant
young hounds, as yet short of experience, get a
view at him and roll him over. Some of the older
hounds look on with contempt strongly marked on
their faces ; Ben rides up, takes the fox from the

206 THE SPORT OF KINGS

young hounds that have killed him, and throws
his carcase into a bush, remarking, " Leadenhall
Market and mangy to boot," as he draws his
hounds out of covert. Nor is this sketch at all
exaggerated. More or less pronounced types of
this gentleman are to be found all over the country ;
they err perhaps in the first place from ignorance,
but if they remain unconscious of what goes on,
they are simpler than I, at any rate, give them
credit for. It must be admitted that, in the
majority of cases, they wink at the wrong-doings
of their keepers to their hunting neighbours, and
that being the case,

Such sportsmen as these we good fellows condemn.
I vow we'll ne'er drink a " Ouassitum " to them.

There is another type of the shooting tenant to
be considered, and he is a man in a different station
in life to the two whom we have already discussed.
He wants no shooting box ; he has no need for
any mansion, or, indeed, a residence of any kind.
He takes his shooting within easy reach of his own
house, preferring it within driving distance. He
likes plenty of ground to range over, and in these
days he frequently manages to take a decent shoot-
ing. He is joined by other two or three, and
from the first of September to the end of the
season his shooting-iron never cools. He is a man
of the towns, and is used to a town life ; in all
probability he still continues in business, and he
takes his recreation in what has been called especi-
ally the poor man's sport — partridge -shooting.
Frequently, nay, I may say generally, he is a very
decent fellow and a good sportsman, working hard
when out with his gun, and going home at night

SHOOTING TENANTS 207

tired and happy, always taking care to leave a hare
or a brace of birds behind him. This class of
shooting tenant, when a good fellow, affords one
of the happiest phases of country life. But when,
as happens sometimes, this class of shooting tenant
chances to be a wrong 'un, there is no one such a
wrong 'un as he, and no one so arrogant.

He goes to look at a shooting which he thinks
will suit, and may be safely depended that in mak-
ing his bargain he will carefully look after his own
interests. Once entered in possession of the shoot-
ing, it may be pretty readily conjectured that he
will not be long before he has raised the ire of the
agricultural tenant. He affects dogs, engages a
nondescript kind of keeper, and is at work from
September to February and then goes on ferreting
rabbits as long as it is possible. When his shoot-
ing is within driving distance he goes down with
his partners or his pals, as the case may be, in
a flash dogcart or Whitechapel, drawn by one
that can step a bit. He makes an early start, of
that you may be sure, for he is of the kind that
likes 2 is. for a pound. Just let us have one day
with him. I think it will suffice. By seven
o'clock he is at work, and as he and his comrades
are fair shots, they generally get a good bag. But
they are pot-hunters. With them the bag is the
thing and not the sport, and all is fish that conies
to their net. The first few stubbles have rendered
a good account of themselves ; the shooters have
done well, and after a nip at the flask they begin
to work the turnips and potatoes. The potato
haulm is luxuriant, and affords rare cover, and the
sport is good, as hare and rabbit and partridge
come to hand. " Tally ho ! " See that elegant,

208 THE SPORT OF KINGS

well - grown cub, how he slips leisurely along,
startled by a noise which he does not connect with
his hereditary foes, to whom he had an introduc-
tion a week ago. Our shooting tenant has seen
him too ; his gun is levelled, and the " little red
rover " rolls over stiff. Another gets up and
shares the same fate, and the shooting party are
jubilant. We will go with them no longer ; men
like these are past hoping for, and, arrant hypo-
crites that they are, they will pose as friends to
hunting ; nay, they are sometimes dependent for
their livelihood upon hunting men who may chance
to be their best customers. When I come across
gentry of this kind — and I do come across them
now and again, though, I am thankful to say, it is
not often — I am reminded of an anecdote of an
old farmer I knew well. He was nothing of a
sportsman till well past middle life, and then he
"took it badly," greyhound coursing being the
sport he affected. Early and late "the dogs"
were in his mouth ; Sunday and week - day he
thought of them and their noble deeds, and even
as he walked home from church a word about
" the 'ard bitch " would set him off. Once I
ventured to say to him that I wondered he never
joined us shooting. "Why," said the old man,
" ah nivver fired off a gun but yance. Ye see, the
foxes had been plaguing the turkeys, and the
wimmen folk got vara bad to liv wiv, sae for peace
sake I went to get yan. Sure eneof, the fox cam
whale ah was watchin', and it was a fine munelight
neet, so ah had a fair shot at him. But the gun
brast, and ah swore ah'd nivver shoot a fox or try
to again. Ah've thowt that owre mony a time
syne, and ah've always looked on it as a kind of

SHOOTING TENANTS 209

judgment for my meanness." He was a rare fox
preserver was the old man, and the best of neigh-
bours ; and it is a pity that some of those gentry
of whom I have been writing do not meet with
a similar experience, and so, like him, become
converted.

The surly man, wrapped up in his own selfish
interests, who says he won't preserve foxes, you
know how to use. The man who has always a
specious excuse, who can never account for his
coverts being drawn blank, and who lies from
" night till morn, from morn till dewy eve," when
foxes are the subject of conversation, is more
difficult of treatment. Sooner or later, however,
you will find him out lying, and then you should
know what to do with him without telling, no
matter what his station.

CHAPTER XXXVI

A BLANK DAY

A story is told of a veteran sportsman who was
asked upon one occasion as to what he thought
were the three most enjoyable things in the world.
As to what was the best he had no doubt, it was a
good day with hounds. He hesitated a little
before replying to the query as to what was the
next best thing, but it was only for a short time,
and then he replied, "A bad day with hounds."
What was the third best thing was a bit of a poser
after that, but after a long and careful consideration
he shouted out to his tormentor in answer to the
question, " it, sir, a blank day with hounds."

Now, though a blank day is a miserable affair
indeed, and one which causes the sportsman many
regrets and at times heart-burnings, there is some-
thing in what the old veteran said, after all, for a
blank day is never un fait accompli until hounds
are on the road to the kennel, and even then I
have known the blank day saved by a fox jumping
out of a patch of gorse on the roadside and giving
us a good run.

Let me give the history of a blank day. You
meet a well - known pack of hounds, no matter
which and no matter where, you have a good horse
under you, the day is all that can be desired, and
hope beats high. The first draw is a gorse covert,

A BLANK DAY 211

thick and strong, snugly situated, the very place
for a fox. Anxiously you await the note which
proclaims that a fox is on foot, but you await it in
vain. Not a note, not even a whimper is heard,
and as hounds are drawn out you remark that it is
a strange thing they did not find him. Never
mind, there are some likely - looking spinneys
within easy distance. Your horse has negotiated
a fence or two and cleverly jumped a wide drain
on the way, and by the time you reach them
you have forgotten your first disappointment of
the morning. So all eagerness again, you are on
the look-out for a start. But " first catch your
hare," as the great Mrs. Glasse hath it, and you
have to find your fox before you can run him.
One plantation after another is drawn in vain.
Surely, say you, " there will be a fox in that thick
undergrowth," as hounds are put into a particularly
promising piece of covert. But no ; again are
you doomed to disappointment. The last of those
likely -looking spinneys is drawn blank. "It is
half-past one o'clock and the best part of the day
is gone," you remark, as you pull out your sand-
wich case and console yourself with a pull out of
your flask. Then comes the generally hopeless
quest, looking for a fox in turnip fields. I have
seen many a fox found in turnip fields, of course,
but I generally find that when the coverts are for-
saken for the turnips it is a bit of a forlorn hope.
Still you hope for the best, and after half an hour
or more has been spent in this way without result
you wonder what next. Master and huntsman
hold a consultation, and you are let in for a long
trot down green lanes, and now and then a short
cut across country, on which occasions your horse

212 THE SPORT OF KINGS

carries you so well over the fences that you get
keener than ever, and long for a fox and a scent.
And now some rather big woodlands loom in front
of you. Not such a country as you were in in the
morning by any means, but if a fox is there you
don't mind that. A fox is what is required above
all. So you take your place down wind and listen
eagerly for the overture to begin. Hark ! What
was that ? A hound speaks ; surely that is right.
Now another takes it up, and another, and then
three or four more in uncertain fashion ; it must
be right, though there is something about the note
you don't like, if you chance to be a keen observer
of such things. Ah ! there is the whipper-in's
rate, " Have a care there ; ware riot ! " and then
comes that melancholy note on the horn which
somehow never is heard save when a young one
shows inclination to misbehave in a covert that
holds no fox. And so that wood is drawn blank,
and another, and a likely patch of gorse on a hill-
side, and then the December day is fading from
the sky, and the master tells you he has come to
the end of the day's draw, and when you turn
your horse's head homewards you realise that you
have had a " blank day." Then it is that you
feel the full measure of your disappointment. Till
hounds were drawn out of that last patch of gorse
you had hope to buoy you up ; but now that is all
gone, and every man you meet and who asks what
sport you have had, tends to accentuate your
misery. In spite of the old fox-hunting squire,
with whose opinions on things in general I com-
menced this chapter, a blank day is a bitter thing
indeed, as you are riding home.

And unfortunately blank days have been very

A BLANK DAY 213

numerous of late years, and they have been numer-
ous in countries that have been well preserved, and
that are well preserved. For there can be no
greater mistake than to suppose that because foxes
are not found, therefore vulpicidism exists, a con-
clusion to which the tyro very frequently jumps
without a jot of evidence. When blank days, or
what are as good as blank days, have been of
frequent occurrence — I can call to mind at least
four within a week — the weather has often been
very wild, and scent has been so bad that when
foxes were found hounds could not run them.
Heavy rains and violent winds have prevailed, and
under these circumstances it is quite possible the
best drawers might miss a fox in thick covert.
But the main cause of the blank days is un-
doubtedly the scarcity of foxes. Where the latter
are plentiful a large tract of country is rarely
drawn without finding sooner or later in the day.
But it is well known that in many counties in
England, mange has prevailed for the last three or
four years to a greater or less extent. The fell
disease seems to recur in cycles, for forty years
ago it was very severe in many parts of the north.
Of course there is only one course to pursue where
it prevails, and that is to destroy all the mangy
foxes and break up their earths. This has been
systematically done in some hunts, with the result
that though, as I have indicated, foxes are now
scarce, what foxes there are are clean. From this
fact hunting men may take heart. Once let the
disease be gone and there is no difficulty in getting
up a good stock of foxes, and in a very short time
there is every reason to hope that in many countries
at least, a blank day will again become unknown.

CHAPTER XXXVII

HUNTING THE CARTED DEER

The great Mr. Jorrocks expressed his opinion of
hunting the carted deer in no measured terms.
The worthy M.F.H. had got fairly warmed to his
work when he said, " Talk of stag-huntin' ! might
as well 'unt a hass ; see a great lollopin' beggar
blobbin' about the market gardens near London
with a pack o' 'ounds at its 'eels, and call that
diwersion." Now, though I am disposed to agree
with Mr. Jorrocks on most of his dicta on the sport
of kings, and should be the first to hold with him
that " there's no sport fit to hold a candle to fox-
'untin'," I think he is a little too severe on those
forms of sport which he did not enjoy himself.
No one will be found to assert that hunting the
carted deer takes as high rank in sport as hunting
his wild relative on Exmoor or the Ouantocks, or
that stag-hunting, even under the best of circum-
stances, is equal to forty minutes over grass with
a pack of flying foxhound bitches. But it is good
fun for all that, and those sportsmen who have a
chance of foxhounds at their door every day show
little taste in depreciating what, after all, is the only
form of hunting available to many men who are as
keen in the cause as they are themselves. The busy
professional man or merchant can rarely afford the

HUNTING THE CARTED DEER 215

time to hunt with foxhounds. Even in the best
stocked countries there is frequently a long draw ;
fox-hunting, moreover, entails an early start, which
is not always possible for a business man who wants
to see his more important letters before he sets out
from home, who only has a limited time to spare for
his recreation, and who wants his gallop. Were it
not for the carted deer this good fellow would lose
his sport altogether, and for that reason, if for no
other, it behoves a man who has sport of a higher
class provided for him and whose lot lies in a happier
hunting ground, at any rate in his own opinion, to
do all he can to ensure that the hunting of the
carted deer shall remain amongst the rural sports
of merry England.

The reason I have taken up this subject is that
the Archbishop Designate, together with other well-
meaning but — on this subject — ignorant persons,
have written to Lord Salisbury, expressing their
regret that the Royal Buckhounds should have
commenced another season. Probably they had
been actuated by the diatribes of the so-called
Humanitarian League, which has for the last few
years been unceasing in its efforts to vilify stag-
hunting, and some members of which have told
some pretty fairy tales in print about the sufferings
of the deer. A man has a perfect right to express
his opinion on well-ascertained facts, but he has no
right to put down an occasional injury which may
happen to a deer to premeditated and wanton
cruelty, and this is the line of argument which has
too often been used by those who oppose stag-
hunting, and, of course, incidentally all other field
sports. One of these opponents of sport some few
years ago spoke of all hunting men as " red-coated

216 THE SPORT OF KINGS

ruffians," which may be a fine piece of alliterative
invective, but is certainly not argument, and the
same reverend gentleman went on to say that " no
courage was required in riding to hounds, which
brought out no good qualities in man, and that all
the credit was due to the horse and not his rider."
I shall be glad to mount that gentleman on a certain
pulling horse I have whenever hounds are in a big
drain country, or to procure for him a certain
" sticky " horse I rode a few weeks ago, and set
him to follow the huntsman in a quick thing. Of
course, the opinion of a man who talks such utter
bosh as the gentleman in question is of no value,
but unfortunately it does harm with the ignorant.

That the stag suffers no cruelty is patent to
the veriest novice who hunts with any well-known
pack of staghounds. We hear from the so-called
Humanitarians wonderful accounts of the distress
of the stag who goes struggling on for miles with
heaving flanks, etc. But what are the facts of the
case ? The stag is the most cunning of beasts of
chase, as any one who has ridden after the Devon
and Somerset with his eyes open can tell, and the
stag that comes from his carriage " like a gentle-
man " is to the full as cunning as his wild relative
on the Devonshire and Somersetshire moors. For
it is a mistake to look upon these deer as tame.
It is the object of those who look after them to
molest them as little as possible ; they are fed on
the best, and they are never turned out till they
are in good hard condition. The powers of en-
durance of a stag in this condition are immense,
and it may be fairly laid down as an absolute fact
that many a good horse will be sobbing at the end
of what to the stag in good condition is a mere

HUNTING THE CARTED DEER 217

exercise gallop. For the stag does not struggle on
when he is beaten, as does the fox. Even in his
wild state he will soil, or run to herd in covert long
before he is anything like beaten, and when finally
set up at bay he has a lot of fight in him, unless
very fat and heavy. So when the stag has had
just as much galloping as he cares for he takes soil
in some pond, or quietly trots into some farm-
steading, where he will wait munching hay till the
deer cart comes for him. That he is not at all dis-
mayed by what lies before him is evident by the
coolness with which he looks round him the moment
he is enlarged, and the leisurely fashion in which
he moves off, whilst if any of those gentlemen who
theorise so learnedly about his " feelings" at the end
of a run were to try to take him they would tell
a different tale. There is, moreover, one well-
authenticated case which proves that there is no
cruelty in stag-hunting. A well-known Master of
staghounds was wont to take the deer he was about
to hunt to the meet with the hounds. A flick of
his whip would start her, and when, after giving
them a gallop, she was taken, deer and hounds
went home on the road amicably. I question
whether this could be done with a stag, as they are
occasionally very savage, but it was certainly done
with hinds. Of course, it could only be done in a
thinly populated district.

My object in drawing attention to stag-hunting
has been to save the sport from the effects of un-
warranted attacks, and to point out to hunting
men that if hunting the carted deer goes, other and
wilder sport will be in danger.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE DAY AFTER THE BALL

Half-past eleven is a late hour at which to begin
hunting on a short December day, when there is
scarcely light enough left to kill a fox after half-
past four, yet frequently do we see that time appear
in the list of hunting appointments. " There's
plenty of time," your comrade will say to you on
these occasions, as you ride to the meet, if you
suggest another mile an hour, " it's the day after
the ball." And when you arrive at the fixture
you find hounds there, with the huntsman looking
anxious and not as amiable as usual, whilst his
whippers-in are evidently wishing that it were
" midnight and all well."

" Isn't it about time to start ? " the huntsman
will inquire of the Master when by every one's
clock it is past a quarter to twelve. But the
Master says good-humouredly, " We'll give them
another ten minutes, Harry," and it is really high
noon before a move is made to the neighbouring
covert. And by this time what a field has gathered
together ! There is always a big field out, for it is
a favourite fixture and near a town, but on this
occasion the lanes are full and the fields are full,
and as the huntsman says when he throws his
hounds into covert, " How a fox can get away I'm

THE DAY AFTER THE BALL 219

blessed if I know." Just have a look at the field
for a moment. The ladies are there, of course,
looking just as fresh and rosy as if they had
retired to rest at a reasonable hour instead of
dancing till four o'clock in the morning, and I
never did know a lady who felt or looked tired
after a ball. As for the men, some of them look a
little pale and have more or less of dark marks
under their eyes, but then that is only to be
expected, for they have other things to attend to
after the more serious business of the night is over.
Half an hour's flutter — it was unlimited loo in my
day — a whisky and soda, perhaps two, and a big
cigar or two have to be discussed whilst the events
of the past few hours are being talked over. Yes,
as usual, the ladies have the best of it the day after
the ball, and one lady, who had certainly passed
her premiere jeunesse, once told me she had
arrived home at six from a ball and had ridden
eight miles to covert before eleven. She went
all day, too, and, as she always does, she went
well.

Meanwhile the hounds have found, and the
fox tries to break at the corner from which he
went away a fortnight ago. But close to that
corner are a lot of people in carriages who are
animatedly discussing the flirtations of the previous
night. So the fox takes his way back into the
covert and is chopped. The Master's temper now
is beginning to get ruffled a bit, and he reads the
Riot Act. In the meantime another fox has stolen
away, and hounds are at once put on his line. For
a field or two all goes well, but scent seems not too
good ; men are eager to " witch the world with
noble horsemanship," hounds are pressed, carried

22o THE SPORT OF KINGS

over the line, and a check takes place. Looking
black as thunder, and venting, I am afraid, some
of his wrath on his whippers-in, our huntsman
proceeded to make his cast. A judicious cast it
was ; hounds hit off the line, and no sooner had
they done so than a gallant youth, wishing to show
his prowess to the partner of the preceding night,
and seeing a formidable jump suitable for his
purpose, rode at it in fine style like the plucky
fellow and good horseman that he is — and jumped
right into the middle of the pack, laming Saladin
and sending Merryboy and Tarquin squalling. Of
course, down came other three or four rash spirits
at the same place, and after that all our huntsman's
efforts to recover the line were futile.

We soon found a fresh fox, and hounds got on
fair terms with him, but there was a repetition of
the same rash riding, and sport we had none. The
huntsman's face grew still more gloomy as he drew
covert after covert, sometimes finding a fox, to
lose him in a few fields owing to over-riding, and
then some very unlikely places were drawn blank,
and it was nearly three o'clock. The field had
sensibly diminished in size. Some of the rash
youths had got a ducking in larking over the
water which abounded in the country, and had
gone home. Others had begun to feel the effects
of the late hours, and grown tired of the moderate
sport, and those who remained were either old
stagers who were to be depended upon, or had
settled down a bit. Still, it would not do to run
any risks, so after consultation between the Master
and his huntsman, the latter set off" straight across
country for a distant covert. This gave the eager
ones something to do, for you may be sure he took

THE DAY AFTER THE BALL 221

them where there was plenty of jumping. After a
three-miles gallop the covert was reached, and as
he sent his first whipper-in round to the far side of
it, I heard him say, " Don't make any unnecessary
noise, Jim, when you view the fox away; I shall
hear you." And to give Jim his due he didn't.
It was very unlike one of Jim's cheery view
holloas, but it served its purpose. For, with the
majority of the field, the ball was still the absorb-
ing topic, and the huntsman was a couple of fields
away with his hounds before the bulk of his
followers realised that a fox had gone away. But
he was blowing his horn lustily, trust Harry for
that. And then for thirty bright minutes hounds
ran hard with an improved scent, and ran into
their fox in the open, to the great satisfaction of
all who were present.

I rode home part of the way with the hunts-
man, and we talked over the events of the day. I
pointed out that scent had improved as the day
wore on, and mildly remonstrated with him for
" leaving " his field. " Bless you, sir," said he, "there
was always a fair scent if the gentlemen would have
given hounds a chance. The only way as I could
get a start with my fox was to get a start of them,
and soon as hounds settled I did blow my horn
well. You see it's always the way arter these balls.
The young gentlemen sits up a bit late, and they
want to show the young ladies what clever fellows
they are. And the ladies they take it cool enough.
Somehow the women always do take these sort of
things quieter than the men do ; they see it all the
time, though they don't appear to, and it's my
belief that makes the men ride all the harder. I'll
always maintain that there should be no balls in the

222 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hunting season, leastways only when there's a frost.
You see we've missed a real good day to-day ;
we've chopped a good fox, old Saladin's got
jumped on to, and there's one or two good
hounds got lamed. Dancin's all well enough in
the summer when you can't hunt, but there should
be a law against it in the hunting season." And
then, as our roads diverged, he wished me " good-
night."

I rode slowly on for about a mile, and then I
saw some scarlet-coated friends coming along a
bridle road. "Where are the hounds?" asked
one. " Gone home," was my reply. " Had a
nice thirty minutes late, and killed." And then I
learned that my friends, ball-goers you may be
sure, had made a late start, had thought they
would be able to pick us up, and had been riding
about all day in the vain attempt.

The great Mr. Facey Romford, on a historic
occasion, remarked that " 'untin' and drinkin' were
two men's occupations." The sentiment is a just
one, and if he had added ball-going he would not
have been far from the mark. At any rate, he
would have had the warm approval of our old
huntsman.

CHAPTER XXXIX

ON BEING THROWN OUT

I will sing you a song of a fox-hunting bout,
They shall tell their own tale who to-day were thrown out ;
For the fastest as well as the slowest of men,
Snobs and top-sawyers, alike now and then,
We are all of us tailors in turn.

How trifling a cause will oft lose us a run !
From the find to the finish how few see the fun !
A mischance it is called when we come to a halt ;
I ne'er heard of one who confessed it a fault,

Yet we're all of us tailors in turn.

Egerton Warburton.

There is nothing more aggravating than to go out
hunting and miss a good run, either by one's own
fault or by one of those fortuitous circumstances
which are continually happening in the hunting
field. Yet never a day passes but what some one
is " out of it," when hounds run hard, or even, for
the matter of that, when they don't ; and the very
best of us have frequently to own that we were not
just where we should have been in the run, and
that sometimes we have been " thrown out " alto-
gether. It is astonishing how on these occasions
we can find excuses for our mischance, and how
seldom we attribute our discomfiture to the right-
ful cause, which nine times out of a dozen is

224 THE SPORT OF KINGS

indecision. An old friend of mine used to sum up
the whole art of riding to hounds as being able to
tell whether to open a gate or to jump it, which is
as nearly accurate as most epigrams, for it is above
all things necessary to make up one's mind quickly
and to act as quickly if one wishes to see a fast
run in a good place.

It is lack of judgment rather than lack of nerve
which causes a man to be "thrown out" in a run,
and it is curious, by the way, how small a propor-
tion of hunting men even attempt to ride to
hounds. Most of them, and those, too, possessed
of excellent nerves, ride to some pilot, or take
notice more of the men to right and left of them
than they do of hounds. And this is made clear
by the fact that should the huntsman not be on
the spot when hounds check and ask how far they
carried the line there are few indeed of the first flight
who can tell him with any degree of accuracy.
Every one can, of course, tell where they stopped
running altogether, but that is another story.

So with so many men not taking notice of
hounds it is not much wonder that they frequently
get thrown out. For when a man is not accus-
tomed to watch hounds closely, to attend to their
cry in covert, and to attempt to discriminate
between the cry in covert and out of it, no very
easy task, he is heavily handicapped if he chances
to be alone or not in the company of one who
knows what to look for and where to look for it.

One fruitful source of disaster is neglecting to
take advantage of the wind. " It is astonishing,"
said a veteran huntsman to me once, " how
gentlemen will continue to make up-wind casts,"
and sink the wind is a motto which every hunting

ON BEING THROWN OUT 225

man ought to observe if he wishes to see the most
sport possible. A curious instance of this once
occurred when I was hunting with a very famous
pack. It was with our afternoon fox, and hounds
had run very hard for about ten minutes, when
they came to a big wood. The moment they came
to the wood the bulk of the field galloped to the
top of it, actuated doubtless by the recollection
that last time they were there the fox had gone
away on the top side. But there was a consider-
able wind, and the top side of the wood was up
wind. In company with two or three "old hands,"
I turned down wind, and warned some of the field
to do the same, but without avail. We had not
ridden a quarter of a mile when the huntsman's
horn and the cry of the hounds told that they
were coming our way. And a good run we had,
hounds racing for another fifteen minutes, and
running their fox to ground in view. There were
about half a dozen of us, and we waited fully ten
minutes before the rest of the field came up.
They were very irate, said the huntsman went
away without blowing his horn, which was not
true, and blamed everything but the right thing,
viz. their persistence in going up wind, for their
being thrown out.

A very curious circumstance of the whole field
being thrown out occurs to my memory. Hounds
found in a gorse covert of about six or eight acres,
and ran very hard for about a mile and a half.
The country was full of narrow enclosures, it was
stiffly fenced, and some of the enclosures were
very long. After going a mile and a half the fox
was headed, and turned sharply back towards the
covert in which he had been found. The field

226 THE SPORT OF KINGS

was divided into two parts, one of the narrow
enclosures separating them. Away we all went for
about a mile, and then the right hand division, in
which there was the Master and huntsman, pulled
up. Then also did the left hand division pull up,
for by this time some of us had begun to think
all was not quite right. And when we came to
compare notes it seemed that each thought that
the other had hounds. And what had happened
was this : After they had run about half a mile
back towards the covert, they had turned sharply
at right angles behind one of the big and thick
hedges, and the narrow enclosures enabled them to
get out of sight before the leading horsemen got
into the field where they turned. These men,
seeing those on their left still riding forward,
naturally thought they had hounds with them, and
so for another half-mile they rode on before the
mistake was discovered. And then for twenty
minutes we galloped and jumped before we got to
hounds, and, of course, when we did get to them
the fun was over.

One very frequent cause of men being thrown
out and losing start in a big run is that they are
not minding the business of the hour. Hounds
are perhaps drawing a good-sized wood — say of
some twenty or thirty acres. How are most of
the field occupied ? They are talking of the last
ball or dinner party, or the entries for the spring
handicaps, or the foreign policy of the Govern-
ment, and their attention is riveted on anything
but fox-hunting. Then a good fox breaks in a
hurry — as good foxes generally do. The hunts-
man's horn is not heard, because it is not being
listened for, and the consequence is a bad start,

ON BEING THROWN OUT 227

and, if hounds run really fast, a bad place till they
check. Then, again, on an uncertain scenting
day the same sort of thing prevails. Men often
press hounds unduly on such a day, it is true ; but
after repeated admonitions and a succession of
checks they somehow get the idea that there is no
scent, and that there will be no scent that day, and
that there is no need to hurry. But if there is no
need to hurry, there is every necessity to keep a
sharp look-out, for in fox-hunting it is the un-
expected which always happens. Scent changes
suddenly, hounds begin to race, the careless man
loses his start, and unless he be very lucky indeed
he is " thrown out."

CHAPTER XL

THE FROST

So full of frost, of storm. — Much Ado About Nothing.

It has come at last, and that in good earnest,
and old hunting men have seen the signs of it
for a week past. Day after day there has been a
scent, and wet mornings have changed to fine
evenings with just a snap of frost, or else the rain
has, at some time of the day, given signs of
changing to snow. Day after day, too, the
thermometer has registered a minimum of a
degree or two of frost, and this has generally
made its appearance in the early morning. "Yes,
it's sharp enough now, sir," my groom has said
morning after morning, " but there was not much
frost till after seven of the clock." All this
pointed to a stoppage of hunting, and now the
stoppage has come. I think there could not be a
more conclusive sign that the stoppage has come
to last a little while than the sight I saw the other
morning. As I was passing the Club I saw three
of our hardest riders earnestly consulting together
and looking at something. It was not a ther-
mometer either. It was their respective bicycles
which were occupying their attention. Now I
question greatly whether any of the gentlemen to

THE FROST 229

whom I allude has so much as seen his bicycle
since November ushered in the season of seasons,
and I took it as a sign that, with a philosophy
which does them infinite credit, our hard riders
had accepted the inevitable.

It looks as if we should have at least a week's
frost, but we will hope, at any rate, for signs of a
speedy change. Not that a week's frost will be
altogether unwelcome to those who have acted on
the golden rule, " Gather ye roses whilst ye may,"
since that early morning in August which entailed
such a looking up of button-hooks, and such
mighty efforts to get things ship-shape, and have
never missed an available opportunity of hunting.
Well, the frost has come, and we have an oppor-
tunity of comparing notes with our friends in other
countries. And we have something to talk about,
those of us who have hunted as we ought to do
since Christmas. For it was after Christmas Day
that the sport began, and although we have not
had the run of the season every day, we have had
an exceptional lot of good gallops during the three
weeks. So for a day or two there will be plenty
of occupation for our spare time in talking over
the minute details of the sport we have enjoyed.
There are, of course, arrears of work to be got
through, for most men have correspondents whom
they are apt to neglect during a busy hunting
season. There are other business calls, too, upon
hunting men, and work has to be attended to
which has been postponed from time to time
because Lord B. met at Hedley-on-the-Hill, the
X. at Compton Osiers, or the Y. at Dingley Dell.
This way of getting through a frost is so obvious
that I will not dwell upon it, and for a moment

230 THE SPORT OF KINGS

will return to the horses. If a man has done his
best to act up to the maxim I have already quoted,
his horses will be glad of a rest for a few days, and
will be the better for it too, for horses have begun
to look a bit " tucked up," and though there were
not any signs of them getting stale, they were
getting sober and sedate, and this means that
staleness is within reach. Some men lessen the
quantity of corn given to their horses during a
frost, but this is a plan I by no means believe in,
though I would certainly do away with the allow-
ance of beans for two reasons : first, because beans
are of a very heating nature, and, when horses are
not doing hard work, are apt to throw them
wrong ; and, secondly, because when the time
comes for hard work again, and come it will, the
beans will do infinitely more good when they have
been discontinued during a period of comparative
ease. I always give my horses their full allowance
of oats, rather more carrots than in open weather,
and plenty of slow work, either in the fields or in
the straw yard. If a good big fold yard be con-
venient you can have your horses as fit during a
storm as at any time.

But the man has to keep himself fit as well as
to keep his horses fit, and this is by no means so
easy a task as it seems. When a man is hunting
five or six days a week, he is naturally in excellent
condition, and it is also unnecessary to say that
as the hunting five or six days a week naturally
entails long journeys and consequent early rising,
he does not go out much, dinner parties he
eschews, and lives plainly and goes to bed early.
But when a frost comes, if he is a social being —
and what fox-hunter is not ? — there will be arrears

THE FROST 231

in the shape of dinner parties to rub off, and
dinner parties, pleasant as they are, have a fearful
effect upon condition. There is only one help for
the hunting man under these circumstances — he
must walk. The gentlemen to whom I referred
early on were on cycling intent, and there is no
doubt that cycling is an excellent way of keeping
in condition. But there is nothing in my mind
which is so good for a man when frost puts a stop
to his hunting as good long walks. A five or six
miles' walk in the morning and another before
dinner will do much to keep him in condition, and
if he follows the example of a well-known veteran
jockey, and walks both ways when he visits his
friends, even a dinner party won't do him much
harm.

CHAPTER XLI

A DAY ON WHEELS

During the thirty -five or six seasons' hunting
which I have enjoyed, it has only once or twice
been my lot to hunt on wheels. I have had many
a day on foot, and have run till I was exhausted
after Beagles. I have been reduced to a hack
and had to ride to points accordingly, and once I
fell in with hounds when riding a hack, and found
out that the little 15.2 mare I was riding could go
with the best of them, with the result that she was
immediately put " on her promotion," and carried
me for many seasons, and her skin now forms a
rug in the room I am writing in. But, as I said
before, to hunting on wheels during this fair spell
of sport I have been almost a stranger. Of
course I have seen a good deal of the people who
hunt on wheels in all sorts of countries, for there
are at least in every good country, people in
carriages and dog-carts who are as regular in their
attendance at the principal fixtures as are the
scarlet-clad members of the hunt. The aristocratic
victoria or landau and pair, with liveried coachman
and footman, and containing a party of fair ladies,
who prefer this way of seeing hounds to the dangers
and delights of following them across country ; the
smart pony in the dog-cart, with many furred rugs,

A DAY ON WHEELS 233

which you scarcely need telling belongs to the
well-to-do publican and his wife ; the waggonette
and the homely spring-cart are all found as regularly
as the day comes at every place where it is possible
for a decent amount of sport to be seen on wheels.
But amongst the regulars, as they may be termed,
there is generally one who has, in the days of his
youth, taken an active and leading part in the
sport which he is now obliged to look at from a
distance. His heart is with horse and hound yet,
and his fine eye to hounds and knowledge of a
country enable him to see many a good run, or, to
be literally correct, much of the leading incidents
in many a good run. If you have powers of
observance you won't require to have him pointed
out to you ; the quiet air of thoroughly knowing
what he is about, the absence of that exuberant
excitement which generally distinguishes those who
hunt on wheels, mark him as a man sui generis,
who knows exactly what he is going to do and
does it.

" Needs must," when a certain gentleman drives,
and as it was impossible for me to ride, I recently
availed myself of an opportunity of seeing hounds
on wheels. I hired a dog-cart, and took care to
obtain the owner as driver, a man who knows
every nook and corner of the country, who is full
of anecdote, and who has the history of the country,
and other two or three, for the last five-and-twenty
years, at his fingers' ends.

There was a large muster, and at first I was too
fully occupied returning the greetings of friends
to take much notice of my companions of the road.
However, at last hounds moved off to try a wood
some three-quarters of a mile from the lane. Then

234 THE SPORT OF KINGS

I had an opportunity of reviewing the situation.
There were a formidable lot of us and no mistake,
and as each person seemed inclined at first to take
up some favourite position, the line extended for
more than half a mile, and I thought to myself
that if a fox broke on our side of the wood, his
chance of getting well away was a bad one, unless
he was a very bold fox indeed. Eventually, how-
ever, the carriages and dog-carts got grouped a
little, so that there were places where a fox could
cross the lane without being headed. I could not
help wondering as we stood in the lane watching
the field assembled at the corner of the big wood
hounds were drawing, why some people go out
hunting on wheels. It was pretty evident why
that party in the landau had come out, for they
were discussing a very substantial luncheon and
were exceedingly lively over it, their proceedings
reminding me not a little of a racecourse luncheon
when one has backed two or three winners at good
prices. Certainly they could not have come out
to hunt, and they soon moved off, apparently
satisfied with having seen the meet. But the
others one would naturally think had come out to
see sport, for they waited patiently. Yet what a
noise they made. There was a group of charming
young ladies, who had apparently walked some dis-
tance, and who were eagerly discussing " fashion-
able topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare,
and the musical glasses." A farmer on foot was
loudly criticising the huntsman for omitting to try
a plantation about the size of a bar parlour on his
way to the big wood, and altogether there was in
the lane a perfect babel of sound, for some school
children joined in with occasional artistic, but

A DAY ON WHEELS 235

totally unnecessary, imitations of the huntsman's
horn and holloa.

At last the wood was drawn blank, as our
critical farmer friend had said would be the case,
and then there was a redistribution of forces.
Most of the carriages kept on the high road, but,
in company with a hunting farmer, who was taking
his children out for a Christmas treat, I turned
down a grass lane and waited. What a weary
wait it is, and how slowly time passes when one
waits in such circumstances ! Not a soul to see,
not a sound to disturb " the ambient air," save
now and again the shrill voices of the children, or
the more matured and sweeter tones of our young
lady friends in the lane. Hark ! what is that ?
Horses, and coming at some pace, too ; strange
we have not heard them find. Bah ! it is only a
couple of silly fellows galloping their hardest
because they know no better. Surely that must
be a scarlet coat that glinted past yon big hedge ?
Yes, it is, and here come the whole field, the
far covert having been tenantless. Now for the
little snug gorse at our feet. It, too, is drawn
blank, and then we turn away again on to the high
road, and trot along for some mile and a half to
another big wood, which the kindly huntsman had
told us would be his next draw. There we
arrived just as hounds did. Hark ! what was
that shout — " gone away, away " ? " It is nothing
but those noisy brats," said my coachman. " It is
the noisy brats, but they have seen a fox," was my
reply, for there is no mistaking the holloa of man
or boy who has seen a fox. And no sooner had I
spoken than a holloa from a well-known sportsman
told that he had seen him too. And there he was,

236 THE SPORT OF KINGS

sure enough, going apparently to certain and
sudden death, for he was heading straight for
hounds, and they saw him. But, like Ney, he
was " the bravest of the brave," nothing would
turn him from his point, and, giving hounds the
slip that time, he set his mask for a fine country.
What a rush and a scramble there was as men
rattled across the road in their eagerness for a
start.

" Plenty of room in front, gentlemen, and
plenty of water, too, to judge by the appearance of
some of you." Then men got fairly settled to
the work, the merry chase went gladly fleeting
away, and, as I turned for home, I quoted the lines
of the poet : —

Go where glory waits ye,
And when fame elates ye,
Remember me.

My experiences of hunting on wheels have not
been many, but there is one other that I must
recall if it is only to point a moral. Many years
ago, for my sins, it fell to my lot to drive two
ladies to see hounds. The fixture was a fashion-
able one, and one, moreover, where carriages were
generally plentiful, and I knew every nook and
corner of the country as well as the run of the
foxes. So I determined to start late so as to avoid
the rush of the carriages and enable my fair com-
panions to see a fox and as much of the fun as
possible. I enjoined upon them the necessity of
silence, and they promised faithfully that nothing
would induce them to holloa. So we set off gaily
enough, and as we got within hail of the first
covert I heard that hounds were running, and run-
ning hard to boot. Soon I saw a fox pop his head

A DAY ON WHEELS 237

out of the hedge and take a look round, and then
as hounds were hard at him he broke covert. My
companions had not seen him, nor did they catch
sight of him till he was three parts of the way
down the field. Then promises were forgotten
and the two ladies holloaed lustily— they had
powerful soprano voices ; the fox heard and
hesitated for a minute, some tail hounds came up
and got a view at him, and he was chopped. The
huntsman said nothing, but he looked. Need I
add that the ladies were jubilant and wondered at
my silence and generally depressed appearance ?
That huntsman's look haunts me yet when I think
of it.

CHAPTER XLII

EARTH-STOPPING

One of the great worries which a Master of
Hounds and his huntsman have is to get the
earths stopped efficiently, and especially is this the
case in countries where the sandy nature of the soil
enables foxes speedily to open out fresh earths.
That useful functionary, the hunt earth-stopper,
whom we see represented in old sporting prints,
and who was in his day pretty nearly as great a
man in a fox-hunting country as the harbourer is
with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, is in a
great many hunts no longer to be found, and pity
it is that it is so, for earths were always better
stopped when he was in office.

Nowadays in many hunts the earth-stopping is
done by the keepers, and it is to be feared that
it is too frequently done in a very perfunctory
manner.

Our friend in velveteen, anxious that there
should be plenty of foxes always when hounds
come to draw his coverts, and knowing, perhaps,
that the stock of foxes is scarcely up to the re-
quirements of the country, for some reason or
other is terribly afraid that hounds should kill a
fox, or, at any rate, that they should kill more than
one when they come cub-hunting. So he carefully

EARTH-STOPPING 239

omits to stop one or two earths, so that if the fox
is hard pressed he may save himself. But some-
thing very different to what the keeper wishes
takes place. Hounds come a second time to the
coverts ; they draw the whole range of them and
they don't find, for the simple reason that all the
foxes are underground.

Some years ago I remember a very remarkable
instance of this. We had been cub-hunting early
in the season, and a finer show of foxes I never
saw on any estate. Every covert we went into
there was one litter or two, and we could not have
seen fewer than between twenty and thirty foxes.
In the last covert we drew I saw six cross the ride,
and hounds happened to get away with one of
them, in spite of all whippers-in could do. They
killed this fox, and when we went back to draw
again, for there was a rumour that there was a
sickly fox in the wood, they found again im-
mediately.

With such a show of foxes as this, of course
some thinning was necessary, and some two brace
were killed, fairly and without any digging. Next
time we went to draw those coverts there were
only one or two foxes in them, and long before
the season ended they were drawn blank. Of
course, under such circumstances the number of
foxes killed on the cub-hunting day was multiplied
by two at least, and the huntsman came in for a
lot of blame behind his back. I was riding beside
him one day when the coverts were drawn blank,
and he remarked that he did not know where the
foxes could have got to, for that they were still
somewhere in the neighbourhood he was confident.
Indeed, it was evident from the hounds that such

240 THE SPORT OF KINGS

was the case. Next season the mystery was cleared
up. As soon as the hunting season was over foxes
began to be seen about, earths were cleaned out,
and there were plenty of litters, and in course of
time the cub-hunting season came round again.
Very early one September morning, as soon as it
was well light, a start was made in those same
coverts. I was the only one out except the hunt
servants, and we separated, and, as the Yankees
say, " kept our eyes skinned." Hounds soon got
amongst the cubs, and there was some grand fun
for about half an hour. Then the cubs failed to
see where the amusement came in ; they were
tired of it, and they would have no more. As
luck would have it, there was a fair scent, and
hounds were driving along merrily into an open
space in the wood where the huntsman was quietly
standing. Suddenly a fox appeared on the scene,
trotted quietly away to a group of laurels, and was
seen no more. Then another came, and another,
and another, and then came the hounds to mark
the lot to ground in a very big and strong earth.
" That's where my foxes were all last season," said
the huntsman. And doubtless he was right. The
keeper, of course, was not to blame on this occa-
sion, for he did not know of the earth, but I fancy
an old professional earth-stopper would have known
of it. I ventured to express that opinion to the
huntsman. He made no answer ; he is not a
talkative man, but he thinks a lot.

I can call to mind several occasions where
hounds scarcely ever found a fox without his going
to ground in a few minutes. And there was a
large amount to pay for finds on certain estates
with the minimum of sport resulting. A circular

EARTH-STOPPING 241

to the keepers pointing out that when foxes were
found in their coverts and went to ground in them
in known earths the fees for finds would not be
paid soon put an end to all that kind of thing.

There is, however, the idle keeper to contend
with, the man who does not stop the earths pro-
perly, but " puts to " in the morning, and very
likely stops a fox in. This is a dangerous gentle-
man in a hunt, and he does a lot of harm ; for
he can easily forget to open the earths out, with a
result which is not pleasant to contemplate.

Personally I should like to see the old earth-
stopper once more a hunt official ; he generally,
nay always, knew a great deal about hunting and
the habits of foxes, and when he was in office I
had an idea that foxes were less frequently under-
ground when wanted than obtains in the present
year of grace.

CHAPTER XLII1

DIGGING-OUT

So ingrained, as it were, is the love of sport in the
average Englishman, and so kindly does he take to
sport of any kind which opportunity may throw in
his way, however unfitted his previous training may
have been, that it is not to be wondered at that at
times he talks something nearly approaching to
nonsense when giving his opinion on intricate
subjects in connection with the sport he affects
or takes an interest in. It is by no means an un-
common occurrence to hear a man whose Turf ex-
periences may be counted almost by months instead
of years give an opinion on a subject with all the
authority of an expert which a man of experience
like Mr. Matthew Dawson would speak about in
carefully-guarded terms. But perhaps there is no
sport about which ex parte opinions are aired with
such assumption of knowledge, not to say superi-
ority, by those who have really little knowledge of
the subject, as fox-hunting. Nor is this difficult
to comprehend, for perhaps there is no sport which
is so popular of which so little is really known by
the rank and file of those who follow it, and to
realise this one only has to stand by the covert side
at some favourite fixture and listen to the crowd,
who ought to be attending to the business in hand,

DIGGING-OUT 243

but who are attending to everything else under the
sun, from the last Parliamentary debate to the
newest fashion in bonnets. And to listen to what
they have to say on the homeward ride, and the
opinions they express respecting hounds and hunts-
man and whipper-in, would confirm the opinion
strongly. Nor is it difficult to understand why
this is. Fox-hunting, from the breeding of a pack
of hounds to accounting handsomely for a fox at
the end of a good run, is a matter of intricate
science. There are many things to attend to
which, small enough in themselves, make up a
pretty considerable aggregate, and things of which
the ordinary members of the field know nothing.
Indeed, they have had little opportunity of learn-
ing, but I think they might make more of the
opportunities which do present themselves. Hunts-
men, though caring little to talk about the riding
part of the business, are never slack in imparting
knowledge to those who seek it, about hounds,
foxes and their ways, and the thousand and one
details which make up the science of hunting.

Perhaps there are few subjects in connection
with hunting on which more nonsense is talked
than on the subject of digging-out. When a fox
is run to ground there are generally but two people
who know all the circumstances of the case, the
Master and the huntsman, and certainly in the
majority of cases what they decide to do is what
ought to be done under the circumstances. Yet
no sooner is a fox run to ground than you will
hear on all sides the opinion expressed that it is
unfair to dig, that the fox ought to be spared, that
they are sure to find in such and such a covert,
which covert is probably intended to be part of

244 THE SPORT OF KINGS

the draw a few days afterwards ; that hounds have
plenty of blood, and do not require to kill a fox
on that day ; that it is too cold, or too hot, or too
wet, or too dry to stand about digging.

Now I once heard a huntsman say that it was
his business to kill foxes and other people's to pre-
serve them, and with a certain amount of limitation
he was right. Nine times out of ten, then, you
may be certain that when Master and huntsman con-
sider that it is the right thing to dig, it is the right
thing. To begin with the objection that it is unfair
to the fox. This is a sentimental reason, and
sentimentalism has no place in fox-hunting. It is
not strictly fair to go to a holloa. I happened
once to overhear a lady express her disgust in no
measured terms because a certain huntsman would,
and did, dig for his fox and kill him on the earth.
A few days after, and with another pack of hounds,
the lady was equally emphatic in her disapproval
of their slackness, a slackness which was mainly
caused by an adoption of the policy which she had
advocated only a few days previously.

It may be put down as a general rule that
nothing tends so much to discourage hounds, and,
consequently, to make them slack, as to leave a
fox which they have fairly marked to ground on a
bad scenting day. Just see how angry they are
for their fox when they are baying at the earth ;
how eagerly they watch the engineering operations ;
how quick they are to rush in when they think the
digging party are near their fox. In the making
of a pack of foxhounds it is, I think, of much more
importance to kill a fox after a long, dragging, and
disappointing day for hounds, than it is when there
is a brilliant scent and everything is couleur de rose.

DIGGING-OUT 245

After a day of this sort, when hounds have been
knocking about all day, I would certainly dig for
an afternoon fox if I thought there was any chance
of getting him, and if foxes were not scarce. If
hounds have had a good run, scent has been
brilliant, and a good point has been made, then, if
hounds are in good blood, a fox may be spared,
and a point even may be stretched to spare him.
An old friend of mine, a huntsman of some ex-
perience, very seldom ran a fox to ground after the
first few weeks of the season ; indeed, I might
almost say after the cub-hunting season. " It
is only the bad foxes that go to ground," he
would say, " and I never give them a chance of
going to ground twice if I can help it. The good
foxes get away and save themselves." That there
is something in that argument there is no doubt,
but I am inclined to think my friend carries it too
far on occasion, and I have occasionally seen him
dig for a fox in cubbing time when I would not
have done so. But I am bound to admit that he
has plenty of foxes in his country, that nothing
succeeds like success, and that quick foxes which
make a good point are very frequently met with,
and that he, perhaps, has a better average of sport
than most.

But bearing on his theory that it is only the
good fox that goes to ground at once, there is
the following true tale : — A well-known pack of
hounds found a fox in a gorse covert, ran him hard
over three fields, and marked him to ground in a
drain. " Useless brute, have him out and kill
him," said the Master, who was hunting his own
hounds. So they bolted him, but they didn't kill
him, not that day at any rate, for after running

246 THE SPORT OF KINGS

him for an hour, something like an eight-mile
point, he fairly beat them, and somewhat modified
the opinion of the Master that good foxes will
never go to ground at once. After that he always
gave them a second chance.

CHAPTER XLIV

WHAT BECOMES OF THE FOXES ?

"What becomes of the foxes?" is a question
which must frequently obtrude itself upon the
hunting man as he jogs home after a hard day.
Of course, we know very well what becomes of
some of them. Our friends (?) in velveteen are
occasionally, let us say, accountable for the
disappearance of some of them ; a cantankerous or
ill-conditioned owner or occupier of land, who
insists on " doing what he likes with his own," could
probably tell us what becomes of others of the
family. A sentimentalist, mayhap, gives an odd
member of it the happy despatch by means of a
powerful irritant poison to save him from the
torture (?) of being hunted. We all know that
there are few countries where foxes are not occa-
sionally put down in an illegitimate manner ; and,
of course, we all know how the cubs are killed in
the autumn, and how from November to March
the huntsman is keen in his endeavours to get
" plenty of blood " for his favourites. The noses
on the kennel door tell what has become of a goodly
number of the vulpine race ; mysterious nods and
whispers of the " I could an I would " kind tell
how a few are disposed of.

But what I want to know is, what becomes of

248 THE SPORT OF KINGS

those bold foxes which the agricultural labourer
talks over lovingly in the ale-house o' nights " as
t' owd fox 'at they nivver hev cotched, and nivver
will " ? That is a question which, I think, most
hunting men of wide experience will have asked
themselves more than once during their career, and
it is a question which takes some answering.
Looking back over a pretty long hunting career, I
can remember many foxes which were never
accounted for. There was that " bob-tailed " fox ;
and here let me ask what hunt is there that has
not some tale to tell of a brushless fox ? For five
seasons we ran him, once we actually had hold of
him, but even then he beat us. And it was in
this wise that we got hold of him. It was the last
day of the season ; we had hunted into May, and
we had run a fox to ground in a drain early in the
morning. As there was little doubt about its
being a dog fox, and as foxes were plentiful, a
terrier was introduced into the drain, and soon a
battle royal took place. But the fox would not
bolt, so a spade was requisitioned, the drain
opened, and the fox pulled out by the whipper-in ;
and then we saw that it was our " bob-tailed "
friend. " Give him a chance," was on the tongue
of every one, but I verily believe that every man
in his heart of hearts said that at last hounds
would kill the gallant fox that had beaten them so
often. There was a grim look on the whipper-
in's face as he proceeded to turn him down, and he
did not give him so very much " law." There
was a scent, and away we went again, and a rare
run he gave us. At last, after running for some
half-hour, fox and hounds were all in the same
field, and they were viewing him. But he got

WHAT BECOMES OF FOXES ? 249

through the hedge well in front of them, and by
slipping along the bottom of a dry ditch caused
them to overrun the line. By the time they hit it
off again — for I need not say the field was on their
backs — the fox had put a field between himself and
his pursuers, and he managed to get to ground in a
main earth, where, of course, he was left. Many
were the lamentations as we rode home, and some
opined that we should " never see our gallant
friend again," as he was evidently rather severely
bitten by the terrier. But when the cub-hunting
season came round, and we were again in his
country, the first to be seen stealing quietly away
was our friend who was minus his brush. We had
two good runs with him during the season, and
then we saw him no more. What came of him ?
I know he met no untimely fate in that country —
there was no crime considered so heinous as the
killing of a fox in an illegitimate manner — but
that after showing us any amount of fun for some
four seasons and part of a fifth, he " retired from
business " is certain.

I knew another fox, a big, fine fellow with a
handsome head and a brush which every young
fellow who followed our hounds looked at with
covetous eyes. His home was a little gorse covert
of about three acres, and he always took us over
one of the stiffest lines it was ever my lot to ride
over. Sometimes he would take one turn round
the covert, more frequently he went at once, and
he generally broke at the same place, and went
nearly field for field over the same line, and we
were sure of a seven or eight mile point every
time we came across him. And he always beat
us. More than once it seemed odds on the

250 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hounds, but our friend always managed to save
his handsome brush. Some there were who
thought that hounds chopped him ; but I think
the listless unenterprising fox that jumped up out
of a hedge-back after the covert had been drawn
blank, and made no effort to save his life, could
scarcely be the same gallant fellow whose usual
policy was that of the Tar Wood fox, who

Went away, he was not found.

Several hunting diaries of Masters of Hounds,
huntsmen, and others who have been careful to
chronicle what they have seen, have come through
my hands at one time or another, and in them are
frequently chronicled the doings of some gallant
fox, whose exploits are spoken of in terms of the
highest praise. Time after time in them appears
the entry : " Found that good old fox," or " that
stout old fox again " ; but somehow it rarely
happens that a fox who has earned this character
by beating hounds time after time is killed by
them, for one would naturally expect the death of
such a vulpine hero to be recorded. Well then
may the question be asked, " What becomes of the
good foxes ? "

CHAPTER XLV

MEN WHO HUNT A LITTLE
Have . . . made a little taste. — 2 Henry IV.

It may fairly be said that in a country where
hunting is looked upon as the winter sport of all
others, the man who wants to stand well with his
neighbours will not own to having no sympathy
with fox-hunters. However great may be the
disadvantages under which he labours, he will
" affect a virtue if he has it not," and to do
him justice he generally has it in a more or less
modified degree. For there is something very
fascinating about the sport of kings, and hunting
enthusiasm is as "catching" as the measles. So
many a man whose appearance at once tells you
that he is by no means at home in the saddle, and
who would as soon think of committing a murder
as of riding at a flight of fourhole posts and rails
of his own free will, finds himself occasionally in
the hunting field. He is almost always a man
who takes to the sport late in life, so that much
cannot be expected of him in the way of witching
the world with noble horsemanship. If hounds
commence their cub-hunting operations anywhere
in his immediate neighbourhood, he is sure to be
seen at the meet, and he will not unlikely be busy

252 THE SPORT OF KINGS

making inquiries about the well-being of the puppy
he walked, for he is a good fellow, and almost
always walks a puppy. Very keen is he when the
sound of hound and horn proclaim that a fox is on
foot, and should he chance to view a fox over a
ride, he is in the seventh heaven of delight. A
few days in the cub-hunting season, a very few
they will be, for his stud is limited, and often has
other work to do as well as to carry him to hounds,
will fall to his lot, and then he is sure to turn up at
the opening meet of the season. On that day he
will be in great force. He will have a full and
particular account of the recent cub-hunting season
to give to all who care to listen to him, for he
generally cultivates the acquaintance of huntsman
and whipper-in, and if he should chance to be a
farmer he frequently exercises the rites of hospi-
tality on those worthies. He is a busy man indeed
on an opening day, and as there is a good deal
of the social element, and not a little of the
"holiday hunt" on an opening day, our casual
hunting man enjoys himself thoroughly, and if he
should chance to see a fox killed after a bit of
knocking about in the home wood, it is, for him,
a red-letter day indeed.

But when the fallen leaf and the sodden ground
tell of the joys which are in store for the hard-
riding son of Diana, when foxes have learnt that
useful mathematical lesson that the nearest way
between two given points is a straight line, and
when it is incumbent upon a man who wishes to
see anything of the fun that he should go the
nearest way, regardless of the size or stiffness of
the obstacles he falls in with, then does the man
who hunts a little find that he has other occupa-

MEN WHO HUNT A LITTLE 253

tions. Occasionally he will be seen at a meet, and
he may go to see a covert or two drawn, but he
will not frequently be seen with hounds when the
season is at its height.

Yet he will be au fait to all that is going on,
and his information on the doings of the pack
which he so ardently admires will always be
reliable. For he is a sportsman, this man who
hunts a little, perhaps at bottom a better sports-
man than some who ride in the first flight in all
the glory of the war-paint. No man pictures the
woes inherent on a long frost more pathetically
than he does, and no man rejoices more thoroughly
when the thaw comes and sets hounds at liberty
once more.

Towards the end of the season he is seen to
great advantage. When the going gets good and
the gaps are well down, he is frequently to be
seen at handy fixtures, and March and April are
to him happy months indeed. But perhaps it is
on " the last day of the season " that he is seen to
the greatest advantage. Then he is indeed in his
element. He will tell you that hounds are only a
brace and a half off such a number, which is their
record, and that there is every chance of their
adding to their score to-day. And if they don't,
why we must get the Master to give us another
" last day." For the man who hunts a little
feels a genuine regret when the season is really
over, and is always to be found giving his vote in
favour of one more gallop.

A real good fellow, and of immense use in a
country is the man whom I have attempted to
describe. He is the connecting link between the
regular hunting man and the man who does not

254 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hunt at all. He likes the sport, and he enjoys it
in his own way, and if that way is not yours and
mine, what have we to do with that ? He helps
to make a healthy public opinion about hunting,
and in many ways he contributes to the benefit of
the sport. Let us drink his health, and remember-
ing all his good points, let us also remember that
a fine horseman is not always a sportsman, and
that a man may not be able " to witch the world
with noble horsemanship," and yet be a sportsman
complete.

CHAPTER XLVI

THE CRITIC

A critic, nay, a night watch constable.

Love's Labour's Lost.

There are some things on which it is possible to
give an authoritative opinion without any ex-
perience. No one, I think, would venture to
dictate to an able merchant the way in which
he should manage his business, or lecture a
lawyer on the nice quillets of the law unless he
had some expert knowledge of the subject, but the
veriest tyro can and does express his opinion on
the shortcomings of farmers and huntsmen, and
talk of the supposed blunders of these unfortunates
with a decision which one would think could only
proceed from heaven-born genius.

Your critic seldom gives the man whose actions
he criticises the credit of possessing any of that
common knowledge of which he claims such a
superabundance, and it is not a little amusing to
hear the hunting tyro express his opinion on the
deficiencies of the man, whether he be Master or
servant, who carries the horn, and in the case of the
former he must be a good sportsman indeed and
keen as a knife to bear the unfair criticisms so
freely launched at his unfortunate head by men

256 THE SPORT OF KINGS

who never take the trouble to think the matter
fairly out, and who actually know very little of
the intricate work which belongs of necessity to a
Master of Hounds or a huntsman. Nor is the
tyro the only offender. I have known men who
have hunted for many seasons, and who certainly
ought to have known better, make most unfair
criticisms on those who undertake the onerous
responsibility — and it is an onerous responsibility —
of managing and hunting a pack of hounds. I
often wonder when I hear the learned dissertations
of these gentlemen where they get their informa-
tion about hunting, and I am inclined to think
that their ideas of the sport — -their theoretical
ideas I mean — are derived from the pages of
romance. A man who goes hunting regularly
should certainly study the subject in the pages of
Beckford and other experts, so that he may have
a fair idea of the difficulties which beset the path
of the Master and huntsman in the execution of
their duties ; but no amount of study will serve the
purpose unless there is keen observation in the
field. And I may remark how frequently does
the man whose hard riding days are over, or even
never had a beginning, see and enjoy the niceties
of the sport which are missed by some who have
a right to call themselves first-flight men. They
may not be always there, but when they are there
they see what is going on.

One constant subject of adverse criticism is the
draw. Hounds are advertised to meet at a certain
place. " Oh," says our friend, " they will draw
Bellhanger Gorse, and Dingley Dell, and Breakem
Down Thorns." But the Master draws quite in
the other direction. Bellhanger Gorse does what

THE CRITIC 257

an expectant country requires in providing a fox,
or perhaps two, and then for the afternoon draw
there is a long trot of some five or six miles, and
a good deal of wondering " why the deuce he
goes out of his draw ?" The M.F.H., you will
remark, is always he with his field. They may be
certain that there is excellent reason for the pro-
ceeding. Dingley Dell may have to be shot next
week, or a letter from the place to which the
Master actually goes may tell of the depredations
of an " old customer," which some non-hunting
supporter wants rattling up for some reason or
another.

A curious incident happened under my notice
lately. Hounds met a considerable distance from
the kennels, and we had had a bad morning, scent
having been worse than moderate. Now there
were two parties, if I may use the phrase, out on
that day, one of which hailed from the neighbour-
hood of a town which I will name X., and the other
from a town which I will name Z. The Master
and I were riding together, and he remarked, " If

I had quite my own way, I should go to ,"

naming a well-known covert, " for I know we
should find at once, but they would say it is out
of the draw, and the X. men want me to go one
way and the Z. men want me to go another. I
scarcely know what to do for the best, but at any
rate there is a little bit of thick covert about two
miles on, through which I will run hounds." So
off" we set to the covert in question, a rough,
rather sedgy place of considerably less extent than
a quarter of an acre. "Where is he going?"
"It's no use going there, there's no covert."
"What's the use of wasting time like this? " and

s

258 THE SPORT OF KINGS

so on was heard in continual chorus. A thick
hedgerow or two were tried as hounds went on to
the covert in question, and with no result. Then
came the chorus again, " What could you ex-
pect ? " "Of course, there's no fox." "Told
you so," and just when the chorus was at its
height the whipper-in's " Forrard, away ! " told its
tale, and a clipping run over a big country was the
result. I am obliged to own that it was with an
unholy joy that I saw four or five of the noisiest of
the critics " take a toss " before we had been going
ten minutes. I should add that I never heard of
any one who had grace enough to say to the Master
that he was sorry for the critical remarks he had
made, or even express to any one that it was he and
not the Master " who didn't know his business."

CHAPTER XLVII

NOT A HUNTING COUNTRY
Boy, I do love that country ! — Love's Labour's Lost.

A recent writer on sport writes as follows : —
" Truth to tell, ours can never be a hunting
district. There is a deal of plough, there are many
enclosures, and there are such numerous patches of
woodland each within a mile or less from the next,
that there can never be any chance of a fox leading
hounds a decent gallop. Whenever the county
hounds do come, they come more with a view of
affording a coffee -housing holiday to a mixed
throng who know little and care less about the
chase, than with any other real object. Pony-carts,
bicycles, and foot people make up the greater part
of the field. Our woods are drawn in a most
perfunctory manner, but generally the Master hardly
takes the trouble to do more than run the hounds
through some of the coverts, leaving many likely
spots, many outlying spinneys, untried, and then
trots off about five miles to some more open
country, where he has a better chance of getting
on terms with ' the little red rover.' The foxes
which we know haunt the country, and which we
may have viewed frequently on previous days, have
an opportunity of saving themselves, and we feel

26o THE SPORT OF KINGS

that we have entertained them and guaranteed
their safety throughout the year to no practical
end." The writer goes on to say that he yields to
no one in his love for the chase, and adds : " When
all natural conditions are against it, when most of
the few men and women in the field are only there
because no other amusement is immediately avail-
able, and when the subscriptions are so small that
everything has to be done on the cheap, it is very
much a question whether another sport for which
the country is peculiarly adapted, and which gives
a vast amount of pleasure to many people, should
be arbitrarily sacrificed in its favour."

Let us consider this rather formidable indict-
ment for a moment. In the first place, it must
strike any impartial reader that it is manifestly
unfair to attack a Master of Hounds and a hunt
in such a vague manner. They have no chance
to defend ourselves, and a general statement is
made which is damaging to the sport of fox-
hunting as a whole, and which, on the face of it,
seems intended to be such. I am friendly to fox-
hunting, says the writer in effect, but it is fox-
hunting under such conditions as / think fit. He
seems indeed a fitting companion for a gentleman ( ?)
of my acquaintance who hunts himself in a fashion-
able country, but who is a pronounced vulpicide in
the country where his property is situated. He,
like the author of the diatribe I have quoted, holds
that the country in which his property is situated
"can never be a hunting district"; I know it to
be as fine a country as man need wish to ride
over, provided he has a clever enough horse to
cross it, though I admit I should like a little more
grass.

NOT A HUNTING COUNTRY 261

First, let us take the description of this im-
possible country. " There is a deal of plough,
there are many enclosures, and there are such
numerous patches of woodland, each within a mile
or less from the next, that there can never be any
chance of a fox leading hounds a decent gallop."
Begging the question, this last sentence, with a
vengeance. I should think I have seen a great
deal more hunting than the writer, for I have
hunted all over England, and I have no hesitation
in saying that some of the best points I have ever
seen made were made in countries which exactly
answer the description given above. Indeed, " a
deal of plough, small enclosures, and much wood-
land at short intervals " describes fairly well a
considerable proportion of some of the most sport-
ing countries in the provinces. I was in such a
country the other day, and I may say passim that
the Master, a good sportsman, who likes to have
his hunting and spend his money at home, felt
himself considerably aggrieved at the wholesale
condemnation of what I may call rough and wild
hunting countries such as I have quoted. I was
fortunate in paying my visit on a good scenting
day. Hounds found at once, and after one turn
round a very large wood, a turn which was
evidently the result of his being headed, our fox took
a six-mile point, hounds running hard all the time
(forty minutes), and had they not changed they
must have soon killed. Forty minutes with a
second fox was not so straight, but in this respect
it would compare favourably with some runs I have
seen in what are known as fashionable countries,
and that it had a satisfactory result the brush
which hangs in front of me whilst I write — the

262 THE SPORT OF KINGS

brush of a wild mountain fox — is sufficient
testimony.

And let us look at the statement that " in such
a country there can never be any chance of a fox
leading hounds a decent gallop " from another
standpoint. Quite true it is that in some countries
this is the case. But why ? Those who are
acquainted with the ways of men ambitious to
exceed the bags of their neighbours when they
have their " big shoot " will, I fancy, not require
telling. It is a well-known fact that in many
places it is customary for the keepers to destroy
the vixen as soon as the cubs can live without her,
and these poor unfortunates are " wired in " and
fed till within a few weeks — aye, sometimes till
within a few days — of the hunting season. Indeed,
I have seen them still " wired in " when hounds
have run another fox into the coverts. I do not
wish to infer that this is the case in the country to
which reference is made in the extract I have
given, but I do know that it is a custom which
prevails extensively, and I also know that wild
foxes in a wild country are not given to dodging
about when there is a good pack of hounds behind
them.

Now about the composition of the field when
hounds come to disturb this shooter's paradise.
Hounds come, we are told, more to afford a mixed
coffee-housing throng a holiday than with any
other object. It seems to me to savour somewhat
of impertinence to judge of a man's motives in
hunting the worst part of his country. The
palpable motive is to hunt the country fairly, and
by so doing please the farmers who live on that
side of it. The idea of coming to give a mixed

NOT A HUNTING COUNTRY 263

coffee-housing throng a holiday is, I should say,
far from the thoughts of the Master of Hounds
who is criticised, and exists, I should think, only
in the fertile brain of the critic. " Pony-carts,
bicycles, and foot people," we are told, " make up
the greater part of the field." Well, is that to be
imputed to the Master of Hounds as a crime ? I
trow not. I have seen some as good sportsmen in
traps, on bicycles, and on foot as ever I saw
clothed in all the glory of the war-paint at a crack
Midland fixture. Sometimes, it is true, the pony-
carts and the bicycles get into the way and head foxes,
and the stentorian voices of the foot people are an
injury to the sport they wish to aid. But I think
I have seen a scarlet-coated gentleman on a two-
hundred-guinea hunter head a fox upon occasion
when eager to secure a good start ; and who that
goes hunting does not know the warning cry,
" Give them a bit of room, gentlemen, do ! "
The question I want to ask is this : If people in
pony-carts, on bicycles, or on shanks' mare enjoy
hunting and its surroundings, is there any reason
why they should be deprived of their sport and
enjoyment to satisfy the prejudices of a shooting
man ? I can see only one answer to the question.
There exists no reason ; there can exist no reason
for such deprivation. Shooting, we know, is only
for the few, and in its essence there is something
of selfishness ; but sport exists for the many. If
it did not it would soon cease, and when people in
traps, on bicycles, and on foot behave themselves
fairly and don't spoil sport — and it is only fair to
say that it is generally through ignorance and
excitement that they err, as mounted friends do
upon occasion— I for one am always glad to see

264 THE SPORT OF KINGS

them enjoying in their own way the sport of
kings.1

The sins of the Master of Hounds in question
are manifold. After calling in question his motives
in hunting a country his methods come in for
criticism. " The woods are drawn in a perfunctory
way, and the Master hardly takes the trouble to
do more than run the hounds through some of the
coverts, leaving many likely spots, etc., and then
trots five miles away, etc. The foxes which we
know haunt the country, and which we may have
viewed frequently . . . are left in undisturbed
possession, etc." The " may " — italics are mine
— liketh me well. This is really such an old
story that it is amusing. A Master of Hounds
comes to draw coverts where he is practically sure
foxes are scarce, even if they are there at all ; he
draws the most likely of them ; he sees no sign of
a fox, and he goes away for his afternoon draw to
where there is one to save a blank day, and to
give the coffee -housing, holiday -making crowd a
gallop. Methinks our critic doth protest too
much. If the object of the Master of Hounds be
to afford a holiday to a coffee-housing crowd it
would not matter how he spent his day, and he
might just as well spend his time in looking in
outlying spinneys for the fox which has been — I
beg pardon, which may have been — so frequently
viewed when hounds are not in the neighbour-
hood, but which is always conspicuous by his
absence when they are there. I know that fox

1 Note. — It must be understood that with the special circumstances to
which the writer refers I have nothing to do. It is possible that in one
instance a country may be badly hunted. It is the general deduction of the
writer which I combat. No more pernicious doctrine can be enunciated than
that a shooting man shall tell a hunting man what is a hunting country
and what is not, which is what I have quoted practically amounts to.

NOT A HUNTING COUNTRY 265

well. I have known him for thirty -five years.
He is the biggest fox " wot ever wos."

It is plain enough to any one who can read
between the lines that, unfortunately, the Master
of Hounds in question has to deal with a district
in which foxes are not preserved as they should be,
and that he knows it. Mind, I do not suggest
that the writer is guilty of vulpicide ; he appears
to have a grievance, first against hounds for hunt-
ing the country at all, and secondly, against the
Master for the way in which it is hunted. I have
said it before, and I reiterate the statement, I can
prove it amply if necessary, that the best estates
for game that I know — and I have a pretty wide
knowledge of shooting estates — are where foxes
are well preserved, and where the shooting is
never allowed to interfere with the hunting. I
can name them in one county after another,
estates where big bags are made, and where the
head of game is quite as much as the ground will
legitimately carry. So, if our shooting friends
get keepers such as are to be found on the estates
I mention, their grievance, I take it, would vanish.

Now from the particular I must pass on to the
general.

A long list of conditions, more or less imagin-
ary, are given under which it is told it is very
much a question whether shooting should be arbi-
trarily sacrificed to another sport. The country is
unknown to me in which shooting is arbitrarily
sacrificed to fox-hunting.

Unfortunately, many countries are well known
to me where fox-hunting is unnecessarily interfered
with by the arbitrary conditions imposed by the
shooting tenant and his keepers. And now to

266 THE SPORT OF KINGS

examine these conditions. " When most of the
few men and women in the field are only there
because no other amusement is immediately avail-
able." This is begging the question with a
vengeance. The poet tells us that

Genius is peculiar to no skies,

And may hereafter even in Holland rise.

And if genius, why not the love of fox-hunting ?
Is that necessarily confined to the grass countries ?
And because a man cannot afford to keep half a
dozen two-hundred-guinea hunters at Melton or
Harborough, is he therefore to be prevented
from enjoying his favourite sport on a ^50 screw
in the cramped and woody country in which his
lines are cast ? Perish the thought. And suppose
that the contention is right that most of the field
only hunt because there is no other amusement, is
that any reason why they should be deprived of
their only amusement at the bidding of those for
whom it is no amusement ? There is no reason
that I can see.

Then again the question of subscriptions is
raised, and we learn that when the subscriptions
are so small that everything has to be done on the
cheap, it is a reason why hounds should not be
kept. A more selfish and one-sided way of look-
ing at the matter I never came across. Why
should a man's sport be stopped because he cannot
afford the expense of the cut-'em-down countries ?
Is a man to be deprived of hunting altogether
because he lives in an unfashionable country where
it is impossible to obtain a big subscription ? If it
became a question of subscription alone many a
country which has an historic name would soon be

NOT A HUNTING COUNTRY 267

eliminated from the hound lists. All honour to
the plucky fellows, say I, who with limited means
and in face of opposition keep " the tambourine
a-rollin','' and all honour to the Master, who, prob-
ably not a rich man himself, spends some of his
substance on keeping up the pack.

And it should always be borne in mind that
even in unfashionable countries some people may
be kept at home by the fact of there being a pack
of hounds there, who would otherwise spend their
time and their money elsewhere. I know of at
least two such cases. One gentleman, a man of
vast wealth, hunts what, with the exception of a
small portion of it, would be looked upon by
the gentleman I have quoted as an unhuntable
country. Immense woodlands, near together,
small enclosures, etc., is a good description of
two-thirds of it. Excellent sport is shown by a
good pack of hounds, and foxes are plentiful, and
they are accounted for satisfactorily. And not
only during the hunting season, but for most of
the year the gentleman resides at home. Were it
not that he could hunt at home he would take
himself and his wealth into some other country.
It is scarcely necessary to say that the hounds over
which he presides with such marked ability do
more good in the country in an economic sense
than would forty game preservers. Another in-
stance occurs to my memory. In just such a
country as this which I have been speaking of,
save that it was a two instead of a three days' a
week country, the subscription was about ^350
per annum, of which £260 was the payment made
to the Master. A useful balance was generally
carried forward from year to year, and I believe

268 THE SPORT OF KINGS

only once in something like twenty years were the
guarantors called upon to make good a deficiency,
and then they were subsequently repaid. It was a
poor hunt ; a captious critic might say that people
only hunted because it was the only amusement
available ; but I have no hesitation in saying that
it turned out some of the best sportsmen that ever
wore scarlet or buckled on a spur, and that no
better sport was shown throughout the length and
breadth of the land. Hounds were bad to get to
at times, it is true, but difficulties only exist to be
overcome, and some one always managed to be
there.

According to the theory promulgated, both
these hunts should be disestablished in the interests
of game preservers.

With the writer of the article in question I
have no quarrel. He claims to be friendly to fox-
hunting, but as I have shown, it is only to fox-
hunting as he knows it, and according to his
standard. But his theory is a most pernicious
one, and carried to its logical conclusion it would
put an end to hunting in half the countries in
England. As I have before pointed out, there is
no reason why fox-hunting and game preserving
should not go on side by side in all countries, as
they unquestionably do in some, and given a
keeper who knows his business it is easy enough
to obtain this desirable end.

I may conclude with the remark that amongst
my acquaintances I number more than one who
were keen fox-hunters till their nerve failed, and
till they could no longer go in front. These
gentlemen have developed a keen liking for shoot-
ing now ; they pose in theory as lovers of hunt-

NOT A HUNTING COUNTRY 269

ing, but they are the most difficult people with
whom a sorely -tried M.F.H. has to deal. I
refrain from giving my opinion on these gentle-
men ; what that is I may leave to the imagination
of my readers.

One word more respecting the writer of the
attack. The attack may be justified in some par-
ticulars, though I have shown that in the account
given by the critic there is nothing to lead a man
who can read between the lines that it is. Every
M.F.H. is not a sportsman, and the M.F.H. in
question may not draw his coverts properly. But
he has been given no opportunity to defend him-
self, and the generalisations made from the parti-
cular instances are not justified by the facts of
the case. These generalisations aim at the very
foundation of fox-hunting, and as the author of
them says he yields to none in his love of the
sport, so may we fox-hunters answer, "Save us
from our friends."

CHAPTER XLVIII

BY INVITATION

Still invites
All that pass by.

Timon of Athens.

"In days of old," where a country was not hunted
by some local magnate each yeoman and farmer
used to keep a hound, and at certain fixed times
these worthy souls would repair with their hounds
to some neighbour's house, not infrequently a
public - house, whence, after sundry libations to
Diana, the goddess of the chase, they would repair
the wily fox to slay. They were not a trencher-
fed pack ; the trencher-fed pack was a creation of
a later date, and was the result of the necessity of
continuous action and a continuous policy if fox-
hunting was to be adopted, as it ultimately was, as
the winter sport of the nation. In these pre-
historic days every man hunted his own hound,
several men carried a horn, and staunch indeed
must the hounds have been which killed a fox at
all with the babel of noise which was, in those
days, one of the concomitants of fox-hunting. It
is by no means impossible that these gatherings of
sportsmen, when Mr. Jones brought his Towler,
and Mr. Smith brought his Towler, and Mr.
Johnson brought still another Towler, and so on,

AN INVITATION 271

were the forerunners of those " invitation " days
which are frequently occurring in the present
generation, and which are a source of much
anxiety to Masters of Hounds and hunt servants.

When hunting became established all over the
country on a firm basis, when subscription packs
were formed and hunt clubs became the order of
the day in the provinces as well as in more fashion-
able districts, Mr. Jones and Mr. Johnson and Mr.
Smith, with their respective Towlers, of course,
became things of the past. But old customs
die hard at any time, and more especially was
this the case in the beginning of the century.
Then it must be remembered that the boundaries
of countries were ill-defined ; there was a great
difficulty in getting to the outlying districts of a
hunt, expense was a matter for consideration of
the most careful kind, and, as a consequence, there
survived in many districts a few scratch packs of
hounds which hunted occasionally, and which
belonged to some wealthier yeoman or farmer who
resided far from the centre of any of the newly-
formed hunts. They gradually were done away
with, as the countries adjacent were better and
more regularly hunted, and when fox-preserving
and the regular drawing of a country became
better understood. But until that took place they
were not only tolerated, but appreciated by their
more orthodox neighbours, with whom they were
generally on the best of terms.

So we read in the diary of Mr. John Andrew,
the first Master of the Cleveland, that in 1 8 1 7 the
pack joined forces with Rickaby, of Swainby, by
invitation, to hunt some of the country which lay
on the borders of the Cleveland. " We took nine

272 THE SPORT OF KINGS

couples and Rickaby six," writes Mr. Andrew,
and then, after relating the run, he says, " Two
couples of ours were first at the kill, then a couple
of Rickaby's. All ours were up but one couple."
Curiously enough, this custom of joining packs,
which one would think modern developments
would have rendered obsolete, still survives in
some places, and only a few years ago the Thur-
stonefield, a well-known Cumberland pack, had a
joint hunt with the Abbey Holme, a pack which
does not figure in the hound list, but which shows
rare sport in a rough, wild country.

In its more modern form, however, a meet by
invitation means one pack of hounds going to
hunt in the country of another through the
courtesy of the Master of the latter. Sometimes
the invitation is given because foxes are rather
scarce in the country of the invited ; sometimes it
partakes of the nature of a personal compliment to
the Master invited, and nothing else. Such was
the case when Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith, who
was then the Nestor of the Chase, was asked to
take his hounds, the Tedworth, to hunt in the
Ouorn country, with which his name is inseparably
associated. On that occasion the fixture was
Shanks on Holt, the field was numbered by
thousands instead of hundreds, and the famous
Hampshire squire was so touched by the compli-
ment paid to him that when he had occasion to
" read the Riot Act" — as he was sure to have to
do with such a monster field — it was remarked by
one who knew him well " that it lacked the usual
Hemphasis."

It is the exceptional size of the field, and the
extra amount of jealousy which is astir when the

BY INVITATION 273

hard-riding members of two hunts meet in any
numbers, which contribute to disturb the equa-
nimity of those in office. The visiting Master
does not like to get angry with those of whose
hospitality he is partaking, and I am afraid they
frequently take advantage of their position by
being a little over -keen. Then generally these
invitation days take place towards the end of the
season, when scent is indifferent. I remember on
one occasion, as we were going to have a day in a
neighbouring country " by invitation," our Master
interviewed us jointly and severally, and lectured
us on the heinousness of over -riding hounds.
" When you men see me hold up my hand," said
he, " pull up, then the other fellows will. I don't
want to do any ' rating ' to-day." We found a
fox, scent was only moderate, and as a matter of
course hounds were pressed. The Master's hand
was held up, and we stopped. But did the other
fellows ? Not a bit of it. So we went on too ;
but fortunately scent improved ; fences were a
bit bigger than usual, and all ended happily.

But notwithstanding the occasional drawbacks
to which I have alluded, the " invitation meet " is
a pleasant reunion of sportsmen, and if there
should chance to be anything of a scent and good
sport, affords happy memories for many a year.

CHAPTER XLIX

FARMERS AND FOX-HUNTING

The relations between farmers and fox-hunting
have been the subject of discussion and comment
ever since fox-hunting was a regularly established
sport. In the latter part of last century John
Marshall, himself an ardent sportsman and one of
the leading agriculturists of his day (he was a
member of the Royal Agricultural Commission),
wrote on the subject, and though his article was
never printed, it covers the subject perhaps better
than it has been covered by any one since. In
effect John Marshall says : "I am a keen sports-
man ; I would do all that is in my power to
further the sport of my friends and neighbours,
but I should stand firmly on my rights as a farmer
if any wanton damage was done." I think this
fairly represents the position which is recognised
by all fox-hunters who are worthy of the name ;
but since the days when John Marshall hunted and
farmed many changes have taken place, and a class
of men have taken to hunting, and capital sports-
men some of them are, which a hundred years ago
were never seen in the field. These men know
little of rural life ; the hours they have spent in
the country have principally been spent in the
pursuit of sport, and they know little or nothing

FARMERS AND FOX-HUNTING 275

of those things, seemingly of little importance in
themselves, yet which mean so much when taken
in the aggregate. With the increase of the size
of fields it stands to reason that more damage will
occasionally be done. And it would scarcely be
fair to class all the damage done as wanton damage,
though undoubtedly a great deal of it is the result
of more or less culpable carelessness. In the days
when John Marshall flourished nearly every one
who hunted — and there were few who hunted in
those days, when in the provinces a score horsemen
made a large field — was brought up to a country
life, and knew what damage he was doing when he
did it, therefore the words wilful and wanton
would fitly apply to the harm they did ; but as I
have already pointed out, though much of the
unnecessary damage done in the present day may
be the result of carelessness, a great deal may be
attributed to ignorance. It may be laid down
as an axiom that no damage should be done of
which carelessness or ignorance is the cause. A
man who goes out hunting should learn to dis-
criminate between maiden seeds and ordinary
stubble ; he should endeavour, when shaping his
course over grass, to go where he will do least
damage ; he should also take care to break down
fences as little as possible. I remember an instance
of a farmer being exceedingly irate at one of his
fences being broken down, and he threatened all sorts
of pains and penalties if ever men crossed his farm
again after hounds. The man was a personal
friend of mine, and I expostulated with him.
"You would never summon me," said I, "and I
was the first man to cross your land." " No,"
was the reply, after a moment's hesitation ; " you

276 THE SPORT OF KINGS

did not pull my fences down." Though the
mending of a gap is not a considerable expense, the
unnecessary multiplication of gaps causes annoyance
to a farmer even if he be one of the keenest of
the keen.

What is the best way of paying for the damage
that is done by large fields, and what is the best
way to get hunting men to buy their provender
direct from farmers, are questions which have been
much discussed, and many plans have been suggested.
The plan as to damage which has been adopted in
some countries, and which works fairly well, indeed
better than any other that I know, is to divide the
country into districts, and appoint in each district
one or two farmers of position to assess the damage
that is done, which, when certified by the proper
party, is at once paid by the secretary of the
Damage Fund. There are some people who make
an outcry about their accounts of damage being
scrutinised, and assert that it is an infringement of
their veracity. In other words, there are certain
ill-conditioned people who think they have a right
to charge anything they like for damage incurred,
and ill-advised friends are at times to be found
who advocate their cause in print. I think it does
not admit of question that no profit should be
made out of a payment for damages, whilst the
actual damage done should in some way be made
good. But only the actual damage should be paid
for, and the apparent or imaginary damage should
be left out of the reckoning. The man who is
best fitted to assess the damage is, it stands to
reason, a man resident in the neighbourhood, who
knows all the circumstances of the case as no one
else can know them, and where the plan is adopted

FARMERS AND FOX-HUNTING 277

there is very little friction on the score of
damages.

As to all the elaborate plans for the registration
of provender in the hands of farmers, they are, in
my opinion, simply useless. In the first place,
many hunting men have no knowledge of the
quality of corn and hay, or of their value, and it is
equally true that there are some farmers who are
ignorant of what is really required in the way of
provender to keep hunters in the highest state of
efficiency. Neither can a groom be well spared
to run about the country looking for hay and corn,
and a man may be the best stud groom in the
world and have no knowledge of the value of
provender. But there is a very simple plan by
which the farmer and the consumer may deal directly
— one which has been practised in more than
one country I know of, which works smoothly and
is less expensive and less troublesome than any
system of registration. The hunting man employs
a dealer to buy his corn, hay, and beans, directing
him to buy the best and give the top market price
and to buy from a farmer resident in the country
in which he hunts, or if he cannot be supplied in
that hunt, then from a farmer in the neighbouring
one. The farmer delivers his provender direct to
the consumer, and is paid by him the full price ;
there is no groom to tip, and the farmer receives
the top value for his produce, the dealer charging
the purchaser the usual commission. Nothing can
work more smoothly than this plan, and it is
certainly the cheapest way of bringing consumer
and producer into direct contact.

That fox-hunting only exists by reason of the
goodwill of the owners and occupiers of the soil is

278 THE SPORT OF KINGS

admitted on all hands, though it is equally certain
that only a course of fatuous indifference to the
rights and feelings of what may be generally
described as the landed classes would cause fox-
hunting to be suddenly abolished in the United
Kingdom. Fox-hunting exists by sufferance, but
the sufferance is of an active rather than of a
passive nature. We have, of course, to take
things as they are in a great measure, and as things
are, fox-hunting is an institution which is firmly
established in the country. But as 1 have pointed
out, though fox-hunting is firmly established, the
rights of the landed interest must be recognised
by hunting men, or otherwise hunting will be in
danger. But if farmers should be considered, if
their prejudices even should be treated with respect,
and it it is the duty of hunting men to endeavour
to get more in direct touch with farmers in the
purchase of their provender, these obligations
imply others on the part of the farmers, who, if
well treated by hunting men, should certainly act
in reciprocal fashion. I have spoken of the
farmer feeling annoyance at unnecessary gaps
being made and at fences being jumped close to a
gate when hounds are not running. In his own
interest I would point out that it is desirable
for a farmer to have his gates in such condition
that they will open easily. He will find that
gates which open easily will prevent a lot of gap-
making and unnecessary jumping. It is by no
means an uncommon thing in some hunts for
farmers to be paid considerable sums for covert
rents, the coverts generally being planted on the
worst field in the farm. Now one would naturally
suppose that this implies that the coverts should

FARMERS AND FOX-HUNTING 279

be kept fairly quiet, but I am sorry to say this is
not always the case. I know of one covert — it is
not more than three and a half acres in extent —
for which a rent of £6 per annum is paid ; the
value of the land for agricultural purposes is
perhaps 10s. per acre. During eleven years one
fox has been found in the covert. Now I am
only stating the fact, and I imply nothing. I do
not suggest for a moment that the farmer kills
foxes, but there are rides cut through the covert at
intervals, and it is obvious that it is never quiet,
the farmer and his friends being always on the
hunt for rabbits. Of course it would be folly to
continue to pay rent for this covert under the
circumstances, yet I make no doubt that when the
M.F.H. ceases to pay rent the farmer will imagine
he has a grievance. Another case which came to
my personal knowledge will scarcely commend
itself to those who advocate fair play. The rent
of £ 1 7 per annum was paid for a covert of some
eight or nine acres, the agricultural value of the
land being about 17s. 6d. per acre. Hounds were
advertised to meet in the neighbourhood, and
though it was quite possible that they might not
require the covert, it was equally likely that they
might. Four days before the hunting day the
covert was shot by a party of several guns, and on
the very morning that hounds met some rabbiting
was indulged in. Of course the covert was drawn
blank. It is only fair to say that the lessor of the
covert expressed his sorrow at what had taken
place, which he said was due to inadvertence, and
it is also right to say that such a thing has not
occurred again, but had the lessor of the covert
thought of others, had he, in other words, treated

280 THE SPORT OF KINGS

fox - hunters with the same consideration with
which he and his fellows claim, and justly claim, to
be treated, it would have never occurred.

Then again, there is the great question of wire.
As was said to me by a farmer a few weeks ago,
"Wire is cheap fencing, and times are hard,"
and we cannot expect farmers not to use such
cheap fencing. But in a hunting country where
many people live and spend their money freely
who would live elsewhere were it not for the
hunting, we may fairly expect farmers to take
down the wire, or where in exceptional cases this
cannot be done without serious inconvenience, to
put up a warning. If a country is extensively
wired it stands to reason that hunting, or, at any
rate, riding to hounds, becomes impossible. That
the farmer would suffer, and that materially, were
fox-hunting to cease, is evident ; the breeding of
light horses would soon become a profitless occupa-
tion, for the motor car has come to stay, though
its influence may not be felt for a few years. It
is, therefore, to their interest to foster a sport
which induces gentlemen to live in the country
and spend their money there, and in this direction
it may be suggested that the money which is
directly spent over hunting is but an unconsidered
trifle in comparison to the amount which it
indirectly causes to be spent. Moreover, when
farmers are fairly treated by hunting men they
should return fair treatment, and should not,
whilst taking with one hand, refuse to give with
the other. It is not necessary to go into details
respecting the various means which are adopted in
different countries respecting wire, but I may
mention that in one country with which I am well

FARMERS AND FOX-HUNTING 281

acquainted there are upwards of three hundred
farmers who take down the wire when the hunting
season opens, and that without pay. This speaks
well both for the hunt and for the farmers, and I
believe that within the limits of the hunt in
question the only farmers who had not taken their
wire down were two men who hunt regularly, and
are the keenest of the keen. This is merely want
of consideration, to which, indeed, all the cases
which I have mentioned may be attributed. But
it is a want of consideration which causes endless
inconvenience and trouble, and which certainly
ought to cease.

CHAPTER L

IN THE WOODLANDS

I am a woodland fellow, sir. — All's Well that Efids Well.

One of the most curious things in connection with
fox-hunting is the wide divergence of opinion
amongst the rank and file as to what is or is not
a good country, and it has been my lot to hear a
fine open country spoken of slightingly, and the
wild fells and mountains of Cumberland and
Westmoreland extolled as the most sporting
countries in the world, though, bien extendu, it is
impossible to ride in them, and a man must be a
good traveller, as they say in the district, if he
sees anything of the sport. Similarly, one fre-
quently hears a man who has hunted in the Shires,
or in some locality nearly as favoured with wide
spreading pastures and small gorse coverts, speak
with barely disguised contempt of such and such a
country as a woodland country, and should any one
say of it that it is a good woodland country he
will give him an incredulous stare.

Somehow it seems to have escaped the memory
of many hunting men that originally most hunting
was confined to the woodlands or wide open moors
and commons, and that the gorse covert is an
innovation of comparatively recent date. It is

IN THE WOODLANDS 283

not, I hope, necessary to point out that because I
am going to say a word for the woodlands that I
therefore do not appreciate a quick find in a gorse
covert, but what I want to urge is that it is the
woodland hunting in which the science of hunting
is learned, and it is generally the woodland fox
that is the stoutest, the wiliest, and the most diffi-
cult to handle. I may remark, passim, that the
other day a gentleman was speaking in no very
complimentary terms of fox-hunting. He said
that he infinitely preferred the drag. "You have
no waiting," said he, " you gallop straight away,
knowing well that you are running no risk of
falling in with wire, and you have not to trail
about for hours without doing anything." Which is
perhaps the modern version of the saying attributed
to Lord Alvanley, " What fun we could have if it

were not for those d d hounds." Well, a man

with sentiments like the foregoing had better read
no farther. He is no sportsman, though he
doubtless labours under the delusion that he is,
and for him the beauties of hound-work are not.

That woodland foxes, as a rule (there is no
rule without an exception, mind), take most killing
is admitted by most huntsmen who have had any
experience. Nor is the reason for this far to seek.
The fox whose home is in the big woods almost
invariably gets a start ; the quickest of huntsmen
has great difficulty in getting hounds away on
"the top of his back," and he consequently has
the time and opportunity to display that cunning
for which his race is proverbial. Then the hunts-
man has to exercise all the woodcraft at his
command, and keep eye and ear open from the
moment his fox is found to the time he is killed,

284 THE SPORT OF KINGS

run to ground, or lost. It is rare, indeed, it
would not be incorrect to say that never is a
huntsman able to gallop down a woodland fox.
Of course with a woodland fox it is as indispens-
able to get a good start as it is with a fox from a
gorse covert, but the woodland fox is on the alert
sooner, he gets away quietly, at times he gets
away without being seen, even by the lynx-eyed
whipper-in who is sent on to view him away.
Then if there should be a scent you have a run
indeed.

There are, I may remark, amongst the gentle-
men who despise woodland hunting, some who
believe, or who affect to believe, that when you
go into a big wood with hounds you are never out
of it all day, and that hunting in a woodland
country is one prolonged season of cubbing.
Nothing can be wider of the mark, and if you
don't keep your " eyes skinned," as our American
cousins say, you are pretty sure to be well left
when hounds are in the woods. Indeed, woodland
hunting may be said to teach a man to ride to
hounds quite as much as it teaches a huntsman his
craft. For in a woodland country above all things
it is necessary for a man to keep close to hounds
all the time. He must learn to discriminate when
hounds turn in covert ; he must be able to distin-
guish when they are running out of covert ; and
he must be able also to make up his mind quickly
as to how he will get to them. A good horseman
is as much needed in a country of this sort as he
is amidst the oxers of Leicestershire and the doubles
of Meath. Frequently, if he means to be with
hounds, he will have to leave the beaten tracks and
rides in the woods and ride his hardest through

IN THE WOODLANDS 285

scrub and rough covert to get that start which is
necessary.

When a good fox is found in a big wood — they
are not all good ones in the woods, bear in mind,
any more than they are in gorse coverts — he
generally contrives to make a turn or two round
the wood till he can see an opportunity of getting
well away. In other words, his knowledge of
woodcraft is naturally greater than that of his
fellow who is reared in more artificial surroundings.
And when at last he does break covert, if you have
not been mindful of what hounds were doing in
covert, and if you have not kept stored in your
memory the subterfuges of this particular fox and
his ancestors, you will probably get to the place
where he broke in time to see the foremost horse-
men a mile away, which may be very pretty from
the spectacular standpoint, but which will not tend
to the improvement of your temper. But do not
anathematise the country ; rather blame your own
inattention. Once your woodland fox has left his
home he makes a point, if there is a scent sufficient
to press him, for it must be borne in mind that
good scenting days make good foxes. Probably
his point will be six or seven miles off, and if
woods come in his way he will skirt them or run
through them, even passing open earths, to accom-
plish the object he had in view. Then when
arrived at the wood he set out for, he will begin
to exercise his cunning, if hounds are still sticking
to him ; cautiously will he thread the thick under-
growth ; anxiously will he watch for a clear road
where he can slip away without being seen ; down
the gutter at the edge of the covert he will crawl ;
then, availing himself of the shelter of a thick

286 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hedge he will make good his start, and it is by no
means improbable that he will save his brush by
going to ground in some earth within his know-
ledge, which he has passed earlier in the run.
Some of the best runs I have seen during a pretty
lengthy experience have been with the woodland
foxes, and one in particular from a wood several
hundreds of acres in extent occurs to my memory.
Immediately the fox was found he made a ring
round one corner of the wood, and a grand sight
it was to see how, by the exercise of his cunning,
he kept increasing the distance between himself
and his pursuers, till at last when he broke he had
fully a couple of fields the best of the start. Then
he ran straight through another wood some four
miles off, and finally was killed after a good run
of an hour and a quarter, an eight-mile point. As
for the riding part of it — well, dirty coats had
plenty to say about that.

CHAPTER LI

SOME DEPREDATIONS
Subtle as the fox for prev. — Cymbeline.

" He is a good fellow," said a farmer to me, as we
were riding on together to meet hounds a few
mornings ago, " and I believe him when he said
that we should find a good show of cubs, and that
his daughters had lost a lot of poultry, and were
anxious that we should kill at least a brace."
Then, after a moment's pause, my companion
added, by way of rider, " You know all bills for
poultry damage are not so reliable as they ought
to be," which latter, I take it, is a matter that is
well known to many a sorely-harassed secretary of
the Poultry Fund. It is scarcely necessary to
point out that a bill for damages may be made out
with perfect bona-fides, and yet be quite unreliable,
simply because the man who made it out had little

1 I have read " Marmaduke's " letter for some time past, with much
pleasure. I venture to give him one instance of how foxes are blamed for
carrying off poultry when they may be quite innocent. It may be of use to
you, to come under " Some Depredations." I hunt a pack of foxhounds in
the north, and we are not bothered with complaints from poultry-keepers.
But last autumn a claim was sent in for compensation for the loss of "two
hen turkeys, carried off by the fox." The birds were running, their feathers
were found, a fox had been seen to run through the farmsteading, and a
friend (female) of the farmer's wife thought she saw the fox with a turkey
in his mouth. Luckily the claim was not paid, for when a small field of
corn behind the house was cut, the two missing turkeys were found sitting
tight on eggs.

288 THE SPORT OF KINGS

knowledge of the habits of the supposed delinquent,
and a few instances which have come under my
own knowledge may perhaps be interesting.

The first that occurs to me is that of a poor
man who lived near a large wood, where foxes
were plentiful, and where, I am glad to say, they
still are plentiful. His occupation was a small
one, and he relied greatly on his geese and other
poultry to make him a little money to turn his
hand with. He was a clever man with poultry,
and could always rely on making the top price for
his geese at the Christmas markets. Judge, then,
of his dismay when one fine morning he found
that all his geese had been taken off by the foxes.
There could be no mistake about it ; there was
blood and feathers enough to show that the foxes
had come, not in single spies, but in battalions, and
with a sad heart the old man went to interview
the Master of the Hounds. I should say that the
hunt in question was practically a farmers' hunt,
that subscriptions were, naturally, rather limited,
and that it was the general custom to pay for
poultry damages in kind. The Master went to
look at the place where the geese had been housed,
and he thought it quite possible that the foxes
might have got them away, and, indeed, there
seemed no reason to doubt that they had from the
signs that he saw, though he rather wondered at
them going in such wholesale fashion in one night.
Moreover, there were feathers about some well-
known earths. There was no doubt about the
poor man having lost his geese, and so it was
forthwith, and very properly, determined to pay
him the full value of his loss. It, curiously enough,
happened that a farmer who resided near a fox

SOME DEPREDATIONS 289

covert lost some turkeys a day or two afterwards,
and, though he made no claim, the fact was made
public enough. Now, this extraordinary voracity
on the part of the foxes exercised the mind of a
country policeman no little, and that intelligent
officer — I believe he rose to the head of his pro-
fession, and if he did not, he deserved to — acting
upon a few trifling incidents which had come
casually under his notice, paid a domiciliary visit
to a certain quarter on the night before the Christ-
mas market, and there he saw a sight sufficient to
make the mouth of any intelligent officer water.
Geese, beautifully dressed, with giblets tastefully
arranged, and neck-skins filled with blood ; 1 tur-
keys, plump of breast and snowy of skin, met his
eye, and caused him to smile sarcastically, as he
asked their ostensible owner where he had obtained
them. The answer not being satisfactory, he
requested the company of the gentleman on whom
he had made such an untimely call, and the result
of his visit was that that worthy ate his Christmas
dinner at the expense of Her Majesty. The
pleasing feature of the case was the promptitude
with which the man who had lost his poultry came
forward to repay the hunt the money that it had
given him, which, of course, was not taken back,
as the old man had, unquestionably, sustained a
loss.

The next case happened several years after that
just recorded. A farmer, well-to-do, lived in a
place which of all others was the most awkwardly
situated for any one who had large quantities of
poultry, for fox coverts surrounded him on all
sides, and the number of foxes in the district may

1 In the North the blood, mixed with oatmeal, is put into the giblet pie.

U

290 THE SPORT OF KINGS

be best gauged by the fact that hounds drew one
of the coverts within a short distance of his home
five or six weeks running, and never drew it blank.
To his honour be it said, though no fox-hunter
himself, he never either directly or indirectly
molested a fox. Nor do I think that he ever sent
in a bill for poultry, for the Master, who was a
farmer, and he were firm friends, and he was wont
to let him off with a grumble about what his
daughter said. So matters went on for a few
seasons, when one day I met him boiling over with
rage. The vocabulary was about exhausted in
abuse of foxes, and he threatened all sorts of
vengeance. "I would not care," thundered he,

" for a few old hens and geese, but when the

foxes come to take sheep it is more than flesh and
blood can bear." And straightway he produced a
bill a mile long in which he claimed damages for
something like fifteen sheep — full-grown sheep,
mind, not lambs.

There was only one thing to do, and that was
to wait till he was pacified a little, and then
promise him that his claim should be taken into
consideration, and if the foxes had killed his sheep
he should be paid for them. But the foxes had
no more killed his sheep than I had, though he
took some persuading that that was the case. It
was in the year when the liver fluke worked such
destruction amongst the flocks of the country, and
though his was a healthy district, he had chanced
to buy a few sheep that were tainted. An odd
sheep or two had died, their death in all probability
being hastened by the extremely severe weather
which set in, and as they were on the edge of a
moor they were not missed for a day or two,

SOME DEPREDATIONS 291

Then when the storm became prolonged, foxes,
driven, perhaps, by hunger, began to eat the dead
sheep, for my friend avowed that he had seen one
of them at work. But he had never seen a fox
attack one of his sheep, nor would he, though no
doubt a hungry vixen will occasionally pick up a
newly-dropped lamb. However, at last he was
persuaded that the foxes had not done him such
grievous damage, and his bill was paid in this
fashion. One day after the storm broke up,
hounds met within a mile of his house, and we
had a capital day's sport, killing a brace of foxes,
each of them after a good run. In the second run
there was a good deal of jealous riding, for most
of it was over a good country, and they killed their
fox in the field adjoining our friend's house. " It

is Miss 's brush," shouted the Master, before

any one could lay claim to it, and it was hard to
tell whether father or daughter was the more
delighted with the compliment. " You must send

in your bill for the poultry, Miss ," said the

Master. But the lady shook her head, and her
father would not hear of such a thing as making a
charge for a few hens, and he produced a formid-
able stone bottle, and entertained all those who
would be entertained in liberal fashion. And that
was how his bill for the sheep was paid.

"Oh! Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson,
oh ! " said Lord Byron once, when he was criticis-
ing, and not without cause, the author of The
Seasons, and the words of the noble poet might
well be used by a fox, if he could speak. For the
line in which the genial bard speaks of the fox as
" the nightly robber of the fold," is just about as
great a stretch upon the imagination as any that

292 THE SPORT OF KINGS

was ever penned by poet. The fox has plenty of
sins to answer for without being blamed for
decimating our flocks. A hungry fox will cer-
tainly take a weakly, newly-dropped lamb, and I
believe that in mountainous districts, such as
obtain in some parts of Cumberland, the small
lambs of the native breed are not safe until they
are several days old. But in the lowlands, or even
in the hills where game is plentiful, and where the
sheep are of larger size, it is rare indeed that a
fox will attack a lamb. The fact of the matter is
that the poet was thinking about wolves and
writing about foxes, but, unfortunately for the
character of the fox, the accusation has stuck. In
the meantime, if those gentlemen who think that
the foxes are going off with their choice lambs
would keep a sharp look-out, they would find in
the majority of instances that the culprit was a
dog, and in all probability one belonging to
themselves.

Yet once on a time, some forty years ago or
more, there was a well-authenticated case of a fox
taking lambs wholesale, the history of which I shall
proceed to relate. A well-known and enterprising
country gentleman had bought, at considerable
outlay, a valuable flock of Southdown ewes, of
which he was very proud, as they were the first of
the breed that had been seen in his neighbourhood.
In due time they began to lamb, and then, after a
short time, lambs were destroyed at the rate of
about one or two a night. Sometimes they were
taken away, but more frequently they were partially
eaten and left in the field. Of course it was set
down to foxes at once. The Master of the Hounds
was interviewed on the subject by the shepherd,

SOME DEPREDATIONS 293

but pooh-poohed the matter. " Foxes," said he,
" did not take lambs of that size ; look out and
you will find that it is a dog." So the shepherd
did look out, and morning after morning he went
to watch. At last, after watching for two or three
mornings without result, he fell in with the
delinquent in the act. There was no mistaking
the sly countenance, those pricked ears, that brush
swung over his back with a defiant twist when he
was disturbed, and that Jong, low, stealthy stride,
bespeaking pace and endurance. So off" went the
shepherd to the Master of the Hounds with his
story, and as the shepherd was a truthful man,
and, moreover, a keen sportsman, the Master
believed his tale, and told him to shoot the fox, as
a lamb-worrier was no good to any one, and would
do infinite damage before the next season came
round ; and here I must add that the season had
just terminated.

So away went the shepherd, and after watching
for a couple of nights, the fox came into the field
and began to prospect the lambs. It was about
five in the morning, and the shepherd, perhaps
rather too anxious to secure the depredator, instead
of killing him outright, hit him hard. The
kennels were not far off, so he made the best of
his way to them, told his story, and the Master
immediately consented to hunt this fox to death.
Within an hour of the time that the fox had been
fired at he had hounds in the field, and they at
once took up the line and hunted steadily on in
the direction of a well-known fox covert which lay
not very far off. Through this covert they carried
the line, and then getting on better terms with
their "fox," they rattled along for some four

294 THE SPORT OF KINGS

miles. All the time the Master, who hunted his
own hounds, was exercised in his mind as to what
it was they were running, for though the young
hounds were eager enough, the old ones were
decidedly slack. However, they kept running on
till " quickly they ran from scent into view " near
a farm-house, where the sheep-dog who had done
all the mischief took refuge. There was no mis-
take about it, for there were the marks where the
shepherd's shot had peppered him. The wound,
however, would not have proved fatal, and he
saved himself from the hounds, which, perhaps,
would scarcely have killed him had they got up to
him ; but he was hanged, and that without delay.
And mark, this dog went some miles from home to
satisfy his mutton-loving appetite.

It may be thought that hounds would not run
a sheep-dog, but I am reminded by the anecdote
I have just related of an incident which I once saw
with a good pack of foxhounds for which I could
never account. We had had an unsatisfactory day,
the wind was high and blew from the north-west,
and there were frequent squally showers. We had
found plenty of foxes, but there had been no scent
to speak of, and we were about weary of trying
any longer. Most of the field had gone home,
luckily, and only some half a score or thereabouts
were left when the Master went to try the last
covert in his draw, a big woodland which was a
sure find. We were not long before we were at
work again, dragging about in the big woods
without doing much good, and hounds had been
dragging on for about half an hour, and every one
thought the game was up for the day, when all at
once they began to run like fury. And, joy of

SOME DEPREDATIONS 295

joys, they left the big woods and faced the open.
Then for about a quarter of an hour they fairly
raced, and then we saw they were going to run
into something, which just saved its life by jump-
ing over the half door of a cow-house, which one of
the farm lads quickly closed. For we had been
running a sheep-dog for that quarter of an hour,
and a rare gallop it was, I can tell you. Then the
Master drew up and addressed the half-score of us
who had ridden through the run. " Gentlemen,"
said he, " there is nothing for you to do but to go
home and keep silent." Somehow or other it
never oozed out that we had had a good gallop
after a dog, and we could never account for the
circumstance, and the pack was a particularly
steady one.

In the meantime I would advise all those
gentlemen who have sheep or lambs destroyed by
foxes, to search for the dog.

CHAPTER LII

THE TROUBLES OF A MASTER OF HOUNDS
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. — 2 He?iry IV.

Many are the troubles to which a Master of
Hounds is subjected, and it would be easy to fill
columns with a list of his grievances. There are
troubles with game preservers and shooting
tenants, troubles with the farmers at times,
troubles with horses and hounds, and troubles with
the field. It is with the troubles on the latter
score, or perhaps I should say with some of them,
that I propose to deal. I have already had some-
thing to say about unnecessary damage, so that
part of the misdoings of the field can be left for
the present. It is with the behaviour of the field
on a bad or moderate scenting day, a subject which
has been brought home very forcibly to me by the
last two or three days I have been out that I wish
to deal. Now I think it will be conceded by every
one that it is quite possible for a man to be a fair or
even a fine horseman, and know little about hunting
or hounds, and it may be laid down that at least half
of the men that go hunting know and care very
little for hounds and their work. What they
want is a gallop, and they judge of a run entirely
from the standpoint of pace. One would natur-

TROUBLES OF A MASTER 297

ally think that a few seasons' experience would
teach even these gentlemen some of the rudiments
of woodcraft, and that they would for their own
sake endeavour to understand some of the simpler
matters relating to the hunting of a pack of
hounds. But they don't. Season after season
they go on, heading foxes and spoiling runs, and
when sport is bad, too frequently from their own
fault, they blame the Master, or the huntsman, or
the hounds. They, mark you, are never in fault,
and frequently when remonstrated with, they take
it badly.

Perhaps as these gentlemen are " peculiar to
no skies," but have their prototypes all over the
country, it will be better for me not to name
localities, but merely describe what I have seen and
heard. We were in a fine country, one in which
there are plenty of foxes, and there was a very large
field. The morning, however, was anything but
propitious ; there was a watery white frost and too
much sun, and those who could read the signs
foresaw that there would be a bad scent. And so
there was, and with the first fox hounds could
barely own a line at times, so he was soon given
up of necessity, and they went to try for a fresh
fox. Immediately, certain individuals, eager for a
start, got all round the covert, and to make their
chance of heading the fox a better one, they care-
fully got a field away from the covert. A fox was
holloaed away, and without waiting for hounds,
away went half a score bold fellows to the holloa.
Then, of course, they had to wait till hounds did
come, but the moment they owned the line away
they went again, right on their backs. The
result, of course, was a check in a field or two.

298 THE SPORT OF KINGS

Some extra big fences gave hounds a chance of
settling on to the line, for men had to go round, but
the moment they got to them again they rode them
off the line. On one occasion at a check, a young
gentleman put his horse at some timber, which he
jumped after the second attempt, actually jumping
into the field into which the huntsman was casting
his hounds in front of him. Every time the
huntsman had to cast his hounds, and it may
readily be imagined that checks occurred more and
more frequently, this conduct was repeated, till
after an hour and a half's hunting the fox was
lost.

Now mark what those gentlemen who caused
all the mischief had to say. " It was doosed
slow ! " " The huntsman was not quick enough ! "
" Hounds had no perseverance ! " Hounds, be
it understood, being only mentioned by these
gentlemen to blame them, and speeches of similar
import. Yet, if it had not been for the unsports-
manlike way in which they had unduly pressed
hounds, the moderate sport might have changed
into a good hunting run — perhaps into something
brilliant. To begin with, the mad scramble for a
start lost two or three minutes of valuable time ; a
good fox is a travelling animal, and he would put a
lot of distance between himself and his pursuers in
that time. At every check, too, time was lost by
the over-eagerness of a portion of the field. Now
if hounds had been given a chance, there would
have been as good a run as one need wish to see —
one certainly above the average. For though
scent was catchy and uncertain, hounds did hunt
up to the fox, who was viewed only some three
fields in front of them about an hour from the

TROUBLES OF A MASTER 299

find. Then again, there is the fact that they were
able to hunt their fox for an hour and a half, and
had only those few minutes been taken advantage
of, instead of their being wasted by reckless and
unsportsmanlike riding, they would have been
nearer their fox.

It is the duty of every man to make himself
acquainted with at least some of the rudiments of
hunting, if it is his intention to follow hounds.
Unless he does so he is sure to do harm un-
wittingly, and spoil other people's sport as well as
his own. A Master of Hounds cannot expect
the whole of his following to be past masters
in the science of hunting hounds ; but he has
a right to expect that men will stop when they
are told, and will not ride in the huntsman's
pocket when he is making his cast on a bad
scenting day.

CHAPTER LIII

IMAGINARY GRIEVANCES
Which for things true weeps things imaginary. — Richard II.

It has, I think, been sufficiently laid down that
hunting is only possible by the forbearance of the
owners and occupiers of land, or, in other words,
that there is no legal right for one man to ride
over the land which is in the occupation of another.
It has been urged with persistency that it is the
duty of hunting men to refrain from any un-
necessary damage themselves, and as much as
lies in their power to prevent others from leaving
gates open, breaking down fences when hounds
are not running, and riding over young wheats,
clovers, and turnips. It has been urged, and very
properly, that these are only what may be termed
for want of a better phrase, negative courtesies to
the farmer, and that the hunting man, if his heart
be in the right place, will be more active in his
sympathies with the man over whose land he rides,
and to whom he owes his sport. He should sup-
port the local agricultural shows, he should be
ready and willing to aid any and every movement
for the advancement of agriculture and the interests
of farmers in the country in which he hunts, and
he should, where possible, buy his forage and his

IMAGINARY GRIEVANCES 301

horses from the farmers. To do the hunting man
justice he is rarely found wanting in these respects,
though, of course, there are some ill-conditioned
men who evade their responsibilities, just as there
are some ill-conditioned farmers who will take all
and return nothing. For example, not very long
ago a well-known M.F.H., who is always careful
to do everything in his power to promote the wel-
fare of the farmers within the limits of his hunt,
and who is a liberal subscriber to everything in
which farmers have a substantial interest, chanced
to be a judge at an agricultural show. He gave
his decision in one class against a farmer resident
in his own hunt. That the decision was a right
one was subsequently proved over and over again,
and many good judges wondered why the farmer
in question should have shown such a moderate
animal. But though a goose, and a bad one at
that, in reality, the animal was a veritable swan in
its owner's eyes, and he delivered himself of the
following speech : " I've always preserved foxes for
him," said he, " but when he comes to my covert
next season he'll draw it blank." And so the
event proved. The farmer had an imaginary
grievance, and he vented his wrath on the head
of the unfortunate M.F.H., who was totally
unconscious of offence, and who had officiated
as judge at some inconvenience to please the
farmers who formed the bulk of the committee
of the Agricultural Society.

This is doubtless an extreme case, but that
imaginary grievances do exist in the minds of
farmers is but too true. I came across one only
the other day as I was returning from hunting.
My companion was a farmer, a capital sportsman,

302 THE SPORT OF KINGS

and a rare good fellow, and for a wonder he had a
grievance against hunting men, though he did not
make a loud complaint. He had, it seems, a four-
year-old horse, a well-bred and valuable animal,
which he was anxious to sell, and he asked several
gentlemen, members of the hunt within the district
of which he lived, to come and look at his horse.
Not one of them was a purchaser, and eventually
he sold his horse to a dealer for the same price, a
very large one, which he had asked his hunting
friends. He argued that if a dealer could afford
to give such a price surely the hunting man could.
But this is precisely what the hunting man cannot
afford to do. Unfortunately times are changed
from the days when men were always on the look-
out for a likely four-year-old, and liked to see the
talents of two or three promising youngsters de-
veloping under the fostering care of accomplished
stud groom and rough-rider. The incomes of
many hunting men, especially of those whose
property principally consists in land, has diminished
considerably of late years, and the chances are in
favour of contraction rather than expansion.
Superfluous horses are therefore no longer to be
found in their stables — to use the old adage,
" They keep no more cats than catch mice." It
is evident to the most ordinary understanding that
a four-year-old horse is not fit to take his turn
through a hunting season, and that if he is com-
pelled to do so, the only result would be pre-
mature break - down. So clearly is this fact
established, that the principal hunter-dealers will
not buy a horse under five years old, and many
hard - riding men, especially if they be heavy
weights, will not buy one under six years old.

IMAGINARY GRIEVANCES 303

This I pointed out to my friend, and his reply
was that he had hunted the horse as a three-year-
old. I also pointed out to him that a man who
was spending his money had a right to get what
he wanted, or as nearly what he wanted as possible.
To this he agreed, but though silenced I was satis-
fied that he was not convinced.

With respect to provender, again, how many
farmers are there who have old oats, old beans, old
hay, and old straw of the quality which a careful
and provident horse-owner likes to see in his stable.
There are a few in every country, it is true, but
their number is soon exhausted, and those who
have not the necessary old corn and hay, often
assert that new is as good after Christmas, which
every practical man knows is not the case, and so
find an imaginary grievance. The hunting man
should, as much as lies in his power, buy every-
thing he requires from the farmers in the country
in which he obtains his sport. That may be laid
down as an axiom. But it by no means implies
that the farmers should be the sole judges of what
he requires. As he has the money to pay he has
a right to have the quality of provender and the
kind of horse that he wishes to have, and it should
be recognised, as it generally is recognised, for
happily hunting men and farmers have few mis-
understandings, that the obligations under which
hunting men and farmers are laid are mutual.

CHAPTER LIV

OLD JOE

I was surprised to read some time since that
if " Old Joe," who went to hunt Colonel Salkeld's
hounds at Holm Hill in 1842, had a surname it
was unknown. Why, every man who has followed
hound and horn in Cumberland and Dumfriesshire
in the forties and fifties, or who knows anything
of the steeplechasing which took place in those
sporting counties long before the days of the
National Hunt Committee, can tell yarns about old
joe Graham, of Newtown, and relate incidents of his
eventful life. For it was an eventful life, and there
are few men who commenced their career in the
velveteen jacket of a gamekeeper who have risen to
the dignity of the scarlet uniform of the huntsman
and the silk jacket of the jockey. Yet such
was the case with Joe Graham, whose first place
was as under keeper to Lord Galloway, under
the well-known Bob Co wen. Graham did not
stop long in his situation, and he next went to
Mr. Hassell, of Dalemain, near Penrith, who
then hunted what were known as the Inglewood
Hounds. When Mr. Hassell died Major Colomb
carried on the country, with Joe as whipper-in,
and when Major Colomb died Mr. James Parkin

"OLD JOE" 305

succeeded him, Joe still keeping his office as first
whipper-in.

When Mr. Parkin gave up keeping hounds Joe
went to live with a clergyman at Little Salkeld, and
whilst there he married. He soon left the service
of the clergyman after his marriage and took a
sub-contract on the Carlisle and Maryport Railway.
This proved remunerative, and with the money he
made he commenced a horse-dealing business at
Carlisle, dealing principally in coach horses and
post horses. When increasing railway accommoda-
tion interfered with this trade he took the Willow
Holme Flour Mill in partnership with a Mr. F.
Simpson. But he always had a keen yearning to
get back to hounds, and when he knew that Bob
Cowen, his old chief, who was now huntsman to
the Cumberland Hounds, which were kennelled at
Newtown, was sorely put to it to keep things going
on account of scarcity of funds, he threw himself
into the work with his characteristic energy, and
whipped-in as an amateur, and in many other ways
helped to keep the game alive.

Matters had come to a low ebb, and the game
was nearly up when Captain Ferguson took the
country in hand, and foxes being scarce, he fre-
quently hunted the carted deer. This was a game
quite to " Old Joe's " liking, and he was wont to
rattle on in front on an old white horse rejoicing in
the name of The Curate, and it took a good one
to catch him. After carrying the horn for five years
Captain Ferguson gave up, and it was then that
Mr. Tom Salkeld, of Holm Hill, took hold. Joe
was on his promotion as huntsman, and it is not
going too far to say of master and man that they
were both " characters " in their way. On one

x

3o6 THE SPORT OF KINGS

occasion Joe thought he ought to have an increase
of salary, and when he approached the Colonel on
the subject he was met with the reply that he
thought he had too much salary already, and that
he had determined to reduce it by^io per annum.
Joe took the rebuff with the best grace he could,
and at the end of the season his master made him
a handsome present which more than compensated
him for the amount of salary which had been
docked.

After Colonel Salkeld had kept the hounds for
about four and a half years, Mrs. Salkeld died, and
he at once made up his mind to keep hounds no
longer, and gave the pack to his trusty servant.
No sooner was he possessed of a pack of hounds
than Joe determined that it would never do to keep
them in idleness a minute longer than was neces-
sary, and he soon had them across the border,
and made his headquarters at the " Blue Bell " at
Lockerbie, which was kept by an old friend of his
whom he had known in his horse-dealing days.
Stag-hunting was, of course, out of the question
now, but there were plenty of wild foxes in Dum-
friesshire, and with these Joe Graham had a lot of
fun till the season came to an end. Having once
tasted the joys of fox-hunting at the hands of such
an expert as Joe, the gentlemen of Dumfriesshire
thought it would never do to lose sight of his
hounds and him, and consequently a meeting was
called, subscriptions were raised, and after arrange-
ments had been made about the hounds, the late
Marquis of Queensberry accepted the Mastership
and Joe Graham went on as huntsman, kennels
being built at Leafield. When the Marquis died,
he was succeeded by Mr. Carruthers, of Dormont,

"OLD JOE" 307

who gave up at the end of the few years, and was
succeeded by the present Marquis of Queensberry,
who hunted his own hounds. Joe therefore retired
from active service for a time, but at the end of
three seasons the Marquis resigned, and then, under
the Mastership of Mr. Johnstone at first, and after-
wards under a committee, Joe Graham resumed
the horn, and he hunted the country with credit to
himself and to the satisfaction of the subscribers,
till at the end of the season of 1879-80 he finally
retired from the profession of which he had been
so great an ornament. Joe Graham was a fine
specimen of the all-round sportsman, a good shot
both at pigeons and game, a finished horseman
either after hounds or between the flags, and, pos-
sessed of a thorough knowledge of woodcraft, he
was a popular man indeed in the North Countree.
He owned a few racehorses in his time, and his
victories on the historical Swifts at Carlisle were
not few. Old Joe, the Grand National winner,
once belonged to him, but he did not keep him
long enough, though once in his day he would have
liked nothing better than to have schooled that once
erratic animal himself.

Of" Old Joe " as a steeplechase rider, and of his
connection with the Turf, I could tell many an
anecdote, and perhaps I may recur to his history at
some other time. It was as a huntsman that I
particularly wished to write of him on this occa-
sion, and I may say in conclusion that the sports-
men of Dumfriesshire erected a monument to him
which overlooks the fine valley of Annandale, which
he loved so well. It was suggested by an old friend
that a gorse covert should be planted near the monu-
ment, and perhaps some day this fitting memorial

3o8 THE SPORT OF KINGS

to an old sportsman may become an accomplished
fact. As I write there is hanging on the wall the
brush of a fox killed near the monument on an
April morning, after a good fifty minutes, and
broken up in a thunderstorm.

CHAPTER LV

APRIL HUNTING ; NOW AND THEN

Back to its icy cave again

Has sped the wintry blast,
And Nature, with a loving smile,

Is waking up at last.

'Tis sweet Spring-tide, and down the vale,

The flowery meads along,
The mountain torrent gently glides,

Singing a quiet song.

But hark ! the din of sylvan war
Is rolling from the woods afar

Upon the peaceful plain ;
And hounds and men are flashing by,
Like meteors in a northern sky,

Till riot seems to reign.

Ring-Ouzel, Baity s Magazine, May 1866.

There are still a few packs of hounds in the
North of England which hunt through most of
the month of April, and one or two who prolong
operations to the month of May, in the hope
of killing a May fox ; and very enjoyable is the
April hunting, though, at the risk of being added
to the number of the laudatores tempo r is actz, I
must say that to my mind it is not so enjoyable
now as it was under the old conditions.

For the last few years no sooner has the middle

310 THE SPORT OF KINGS

of the month of March been passed than hounds
all over the country meet at a later hour — 10.30
becomes 1 1, or 1 1.30 and 1 1 become 12, and given
a quarter of an hour for stragglers — and whatever
hour hounds meet there are always stragglers — it
is well on to half-past twelve before the day's work
may be said to be really started. Generally, then,
even over the hills and moorlands, where alone
April hunting can be seen in perfection, the day's
sport commences under not very favourable cir-
cumstances. There is frequently a hot sun to
contend with, and especially is this the case after
a sharp white frost. Then the wind at the time
of day when hounds are commencing operations
in these easy-going times is apt to be troublesome,
and sun and wind combined affect scent prejudici-
ally, even on those breezy uplands where scent
lies so well as a rule in the spring months. For I
have a theory, and it is only a theory, and I do
not see how it is capable of absolute proof, that
the moors carry a better scent in September and
April than they do in any other months of the
year. At any rate, it is pleasanter riding over
them ; the bogs are not quite so boggy as in mid-
winter, and many a place which is scarcely passable
when the season is at its height rides well enough
now. Horses are also in condition, and they
require to be in condition to carry a man in the
wake of hounds when they cross a moor with a
burning scent with a stout hill fox in front of
them.

Under the present conditions of April hunting,
especially when there exists a good deal of sun
and wind, one generally has to wait for the
westering sun for the best sport. Then about

APRIL HUNTING 311

five or six o'clock, when our great-grandfathers
were beginning to think about supper, a fox may
be found that will lead you a merry dance and make
a good point before hounds get hold of him, and
in all probability you will have plenty to talk
about as soon as you wend your homeward way,
even if no very big places have tried the jumping
powers of your horse. There is nothing, in my
opinion, prettier than to see hounds run hard over
a moor, and there is one advantage in moor hunt-
ing, and that is that they can be seen well a long
distance. And well it is that this is so, for I need
scarcely say that many a time it is impossible to
be on really good terms with them.

The ride home on a fine April evening after a
good day's sport is pleasant enough, but it is not
so pleasant as the ride to the meet early on an
April morning, with the Pleasures of Hope having
it all their own way. It is dreadfully old-fashioned,
I know, but I must own to preferring 6 a.m. to
noon for the hour of meeting when once March
is out. The ride on to the fixture on a fine
spring morning, when there has been rain during
the night and the air is fragrant with the fresh
smell of the earth and of budding leaf, is only to
be equalled by the ride on an August morning
when the sun is making each dewdrop sparkle
like a diamond, and you have the whole of a
glorious hunting season before you. Yes, it is
a pleasant ride enough, and many a time have I
jogged on ten or twelve miles to the meet before
6 a.m. in April. By that time a man is generally
ready for a second breakfast, and in the countries
in which my lot has been cast there was always
something substantial in the way of breakfast

312 THE SPORT OF KINGS

when the trysting- place was reached. One of
these April hunts I shall never forget. There
had been a heavy rain during the preceding night,
and it was a glorious " growing morning " as I
rode on to the fixture. Not much time was cut
to waste over the breakfast, and hounds moved
off by 6.30 a.m. or earlier. A moderate fox was
found at once, and, not availing himself of the
opportunities he had to escape, was killed in a
few minutes. Then they began to draw for
another, and before long they hit upon the drag
of a fox. How beautiful it was to see them
working it out, not daring to own it, but feather-
ing on the line, growing keener and keener every
moment. Then there came here and there a faint
whimper ; then, as the line grew more pronounced,
an old hound opened, then another, and for about
half a mile through the wood they worked in this
manner till a cheery burst of music and a holloa
from the whipper-in proclaimed that the fox was
unkennelled. There was riding enough then,
for it was catch them who can as they bustled
over a few fields to a big chain of woodlands,
through which they ran. For some five- and -
twenty minutes they ran at racing pace, sometimes
in big woodlands, sometimes over the open, for
we were only on the skirt of the moorland as
yet. At last they crossed a belt of plantation,
and were on the open moor. I can see the fox
yet as he rose the hill, some three couples of
hounds close at his brush. " Yonder he goes," I
said to a friend, as I pointed him out. " Hush,"
was the reply ; " don't speak, but ride." It was
wrong, I admit ; but ride we did, and what a ride
we had ! The good hill fox was just in front of

APRIL HUNTING 313

hounds ; sometimes they were viewing him, and
we, too, riding for all we knew, one man vainly
attempting to keep on terms with us ; the hunts-
man bringing the bulk of pack on after us, with
feelings better imagined than described. On they
went, crossing the end of a big wood, and here
my friend and I took different roads, to join again
as we reached the intakes off another moor,
where hounds rolled their fox over after a
brilliant hour and ten minutes. 'And we were
all home again at 10 a.m. That was April hunt-
ing at its best, and I shall always look on it as one
of the best runs I ever saw.

CHAPTER LVI

HUNTER BREEDING

There can be no doubt that the future of fox-
hunting does depend in a certain measure upon the
class of horses that are to be bred in the future,
for it is perfectly obvious that if we have not
horses which can live with hounds over a country,
hunting would lose its charm at once. There are
to be found in every country, and their numbers
are on the increase every day, men who " ride
twenty miles, head the fox, and go home," but
though these men swell the field, and though some
of them are excellent sportsmen, it can scarcely be
expected that they would keep the sport going
themselves.

But even if the proposition with which I com-
menced this article goes a little too far, the breed-
ing of hunters is a subject which must be of
paramount importance to every hunting man, and
just now there is a good deal of theorising on the
subject, and if some of the theories are adopted harm
will result and good hunters become even scarcer
than they are at present. And as regards the
scarcity of hunters, I am inclined to disagree with
the pessimists. There is not the slightest doubt
that we are better judges of a horse, taken on the
average, than were our predecessors. What satis-

HUNTER BREEDING 315

fied them does not come up to the standard of
perfection required by the wealthy hunting man of
to-day. Then again, the demand is much greater.
More men hunt, more men have second horses out,
and men on the average hunt more frequently than
they did a quarter of a century ago, the increased
railway facilities doubtless having something to do
with this. So that although, as I have said, I am
not one of those who preach the decadence of the
hunter, it would be folly not to recognise the facts
that the supply of really high-class horses scarcely
equals the demand.

One thing with respect to hunter breeding
which cannot fail to strike an observant man is
how men who do not ride are anxious to give the
benefit of their advice to men who do. Hence we
are inundated with theories about half-bred sires,
bone below the knee, and how to breed weight-
carriers, every third man one meets having a theory
of his own how to breed the latter. And it is not
a little curious that heavy men, if they be men
who mean going to hounds, never theorise about
breeding hunters, but they manage to get hold of
horses that can go somehow or other. I fancy that
most heavy men will echo the sentiment of the late
Major Whyte-Melville, " Give me a thoroughbred
horse with brains." Your theorist will tell you
that a thoroughbred horse to carry 1 5 stone is not
to be found, which is simply nonsense. Nothing
is so sure as that the man who is led away by show-
yard standards will find himself " left " when
hounds run fast over a big country, and during a
pretty long experience I cannot call to mind many
horses that made a great name in the show ring
and the hunting field.

3i6 THE SPORT OF KINGS

" I should not class him as a 1 5 stone horse," said
a friend to me once, as he mounted me on a long,
low, "old-fashioned" looking horse, 15.3, and a
well-bred one, " but he'll carry you, and I think
you'll say he is one of the best weight-carriers you
ever rode." And at the end of forty minutes I
did say so. Yet in the show ring the horse in
question would have been deemed hardly up to
13 stone. So, as Mr. Teasdale Hutchinson once
pertinently remarked, when asked his advice as
to how to breed hunters, " It all depends what you
want them to do. If you want them to keep
a good place when hounds run fast, you must
have them well bred. If you want a horse to ride
about the lanes, it does not matter so much."

It is, I know, not a very easy matter to breed
weight-carrying hunters of high class, neither is it,
for the matter of that, a very easy matter to breed
Derby winners. But one thing is very certain,
and that is that unless a hunter has a lot of
thoroughbred blood he cannot live the pace at
which hounds run nowadays. So if it is difficult to
lay down a rule as to how to breed a hunter, it is
not so difficult to lay down a rule how not to
breed one. It may be laid down that a thorough-
bred sire is imperative. Of course, I know there
is a lot of talk about " making " a breed of hunters,
but I fail to see how success can attend efforts in
this direction. Wonderful and very plausible
accounts have been written to show how hunters
will improve in substance with the use of half-
bred sires, but so far as I can see, when for genera-
tions these so-called hunter sires have been bred,
we shall only have a similar class of horse to what
we have at present, without his hardihood and vigour.

HUNTER BREEDING 317

In breeding from the thoroughbred horse there
is always this to be said : You are breeding from
a horse whose legs and muscle have been well tried,
and it is indisputable that the descendant of genera-
tions of merely showyard animals must be soft as
compared with the descendant of generations of
horses that have been trained and raced. If we
want an instance of this we only have to look at
the Hackney, who is now practically only a show
animal. Look at the normal Hackney as he
careers round the ring at the Agricultural Hall.
He does not go very long before he begins to tire.
Yet at one time the Hackney was the breed of
horses on which men rode long journeys. Now,
I think it would be quite safe to say that ten miles
would satisfy most of them.

The Hackney is the worst possible sire for a
hunter, though there have been elaborate theories
promulgated in which he has had an important
part assigned to him. In the first place there is
the lack of stamina, in itself an important matter
enough to keep him out of court, one would think.
But it is only one count in the indictment against
the Hackney stallion. The action of his progeny
is rough and uneven, he shakes you terribly, and
when he gets a bit beaten you have to carry him,
which, it is needless to say, is the reverse of what
the process should be. I have seen plenty of horses
with Hackney blood in their veins jump well, i.e.
jump a height, but a drain of any width always
brought them to grief, for they are quite unable to
" spread " themselves.

The Hackney " boom " has done much harm
to hunter breeding in Yorkshire, and the York-
shiremen who "make" hunters are beholden to

318 THE SPORT OF KINGS

Ireland for quite three-fourths of their horses.
The proposed introduction of Hackney stallions
into Ireland at the Government expense should
therefore meet with determined opposition from all
hunting men, for if the Irish hunter breed should
suffer as the Yorkshire has done, and there is every
reason to think that it will, for the same causes
produce the same effects, it will be difficult indeed
to find an answer to the question, " Where shall
we find our hunters ? "

CHAPTER LVII

THE ETHICS OF HUNTING

When the hunting season has come to a close
seems a fitting time to review the situation, and
to take a look at the relative positions of the
Master of the Hounds, his field, subscribers and non-
subscribers, and the men over whose land the hunt
ride. Not very long ago a gentleman remarked
to me, " It is all very well pretending, but as a
matter of fact most of us who go out know nothing
and care nothing about hound work ; it is the
gallop we go for, and the Master ought to recog-
nise that fact." That there is a great deal in my
friend's argument from his standpoint I am pre-
pared to admit, but men who argue his way, and
take his line of argument as a basis of criticism of
the Master and hunt servants, should remember
that there is another standpoint, and that is the
Master's. He knows well enough that these good
gallops which his field are so eager for, and in
which he himself is quite as eager to participate,
can only be had by careful breeding and manage-
ment of hounds ; he knows that a harum-scarum
policy of galloping on for a fresh fox will spoil
his hounds, and he knows that an undue hunting
of any one district will cause some ill-feeling on
the part of the residents and occupiers of land in

320 THE SPORT OF KINGS

his hunt, and will not be conducive to the general
welfare.

I think it would be a good thing if hunting
men and hunting women were to look back on the
season that is past, and endeavour to remember
how many times they have criticised their Master
unfairly during the last few months, and how
often they have added to the difficulties of his
situation by their open-mouthed and ill-timed
criticism, and, at times, uncalled-for interference.
Of course, it may be said that men hunt a country
from many motives, and in some cases the Master
of Hounds has been found to be a very round peg
in a square hole. But in the majority of instances
a Master of Hounds is anxious to show the best
sport possible that his country can afford, and he
makes many sacrifices both of purse and personal
comfort in the attainment of that end. Therefore,
even if the Master's methods do not quite com-
mend themselves to his field, they should learn to
restrain their criticism within fair limits. One
subject on which they freely offer their opinions
is the draw, yet this is a subject which the Master
and his huntsmen are alone competent to offer an
opinion upon, for they alone know all the circum-
stances which occasion the arrangements, which
are not made without due thought and care.
How often do we hear the question asked in the
latter end of the season, " Why didn't he draw
so-and-so ?" the questioners quite losing sight of
the fact that by so doing another day's draw
might be spoiled, or that perhaps a vixen was
known to have laid up a litter there. Once during
the last season a gentleman asked me why the
huntsman was taking us past a lot of big coverts

THE ETHICS OF HUNTING 321

which he knew to contain plenty of foxes. As
there was a gale blowing which was little short of
a hurricane, it was pretty evident to the initiated
in such matters that the huntsman must have the
advantage of the wind if he wished to find a fox
that morning. It seems quite a revelation to some
people that a fox's senses of smell and hearing are
marvellously acute. " What a cast to make ! "
said, on another occasion, one of the critics ; " the
fox has never gone there." But " there " was just
where he had gone, and some five minutes after-
wards, hounds ran into a fox that had been well
hunted for upwards of an hour and a half, during
half of which time the field, or the majority of
them, was actively employed in criticism, not to
say invective, in happy ignorance of the beautiful
hound -work which was going on under their
noses.

In the matter of subscribing and helping the
Master generally, now is the time to make good
resolutions. Many rich men who get a lot of
hunting by no means subscribe in proportion to
their incomes, and the hunting got by their guests,
their family, or themselves, and poorer men give
in far greater proportion for the sport they are
able to see. But then, when a poor man sub-
scribes he is generally like the Great Coram Street
grocer, " werry keen." This is a thing which
should be seen to. I have heard some men speak
of the large subscription which certain Masters of
Hounds get, but in any good four-days-a-week
country £1000 per day is not equal to paying
the necessary expenses. Most Masters of Hounds
are from ^2000 to ^3000 per annum out of
pocket, — I am speaking, of course, of the larger

Y

322 THE SPORT OF KINGS

and more " fashionable " countries, — and this
should not be. It is not necessary that every
item of expenditure in connection with the hunt
should be paid for by the members, but they should
remember that the Master gives a large part of his
time to provide them — and, of course, incidentally
himself, that must be admitted — with sport, and
it is hardly fair that he should be largely fined for
so doing.

There are countless ways by which the field
can lighten the burden of the Master, which is
sometimes a heavy one, for it must be borne in
mind that he has to take every one's abuse at times
as well as to pay for the privilege. So the least
that those who benefit by his labours can do is to
render him some little assistance in the way of
keeping the occupiers of land on the right side.
And to give these gentlemen their due, it is not a
very difficult matter if gone about in the right
way. What farmers do not like, and it is scarcely
likely that they should look on it with favour, is
men coming from a distance for their hunting,
then quietly ignoring the district in which they
obtain their sport for the remainder of the year.
People who can afford to go into a strange
country with half a dozen or more hunters, and
live there from the first day of November to the
last day of March, can surely afford to pay a
flying visit some time during the summer. They
may be assured that they would meet with a hearty
welcome, and they would do more good to the
hunting cause than they are aware. A timely
inquiry about the young colt or the promising
bull or heifer to the non-hunting farmer would
meet with appreciation, and a visit to the local

THE ETHICS OF HUNTING 323

cattle show and a few friendly conversations with the
farmers there about their stock and their prospects
would probably lead to some information about
" a rare litter o' cubs in my spinney, and hope
you'll come to hunt them, sir." Depend upon it,
it is worth the while, nay, more, it is the duty, of
every man who hunts to consider how far he may
be able to make hunting popular with " all sorts
and conditions of men," and to labour in the cause
with all his might.

CHAPTER LVIII

FOR NEXT SEASON

"The king is dead, long live the king," applies to
fox-hunting as well as to most other sublunary
matters, and no sooner has the season come to an
end than men begin to talk about the prospects of
the next. Last week we parted at the edge of a
big woodland, after one of those good days on the
moors which brighten the closing season, and ere
we had reached home the prospects of next season
were mentioned more than once. Nor is it only
in our thoughts that the next season is touched
upon. In every kennel throughout the length and
breadth of the land active preparations are being
made to carry on the campaign with unabated
vigour when the falling leaves once more proclaim
that " the summer of our discontent " is at an end,
and the horn of the huntsman is again heard in
the land.

Perhaps the huntsman has no busier time than
in the few weeks which follow close on the hunt-
ing season. The puppies will have come in from
walk a few weeks before the season closes, and dur-
ing the time they have been in kennel the hunts-
man and his assistants will have had their hands
full in contending with that fell disease, which
seems to attack foxhounds and greyhounds more

FOR NEXT SEASON 325

severely than any others of the canine race, dis-
temper. Lucky indeed will they have been if with
all their care they have not lost some of the best,
for, curiously enough, the best hounds generally
suffer most from the disease, and it may be added
that the sharp spell of cold weather which dis-
tinguishes the latter part of March makes the
disease all the more difficult to treat successfully.

When the more severe symptoms have yielded
to treatment a great deal still remains to be done
in restoring health and vigour to hounds enfeebled
by a long period of sickness. If any one were to
visit a kennel and look at some of the puppies
just recovered from distemper, to notice their
hollow sunken eyes, their staring coats, their flat
sides, and their " wan and woebegone " appear-
ance, they would realise the difficulties which beset
the huntsman at, for him, one of the most critical
times of the year. The youngsters once restored
to their pristine health, and full of vigour and, as
a matter of course, mischief, then comes the period
of breaking. And in the breaking is the making
or marring of a pack of hounds. It is not a mere
matter of whipcord, as some seem to think, and in
these days the education of hounds is a scientific
business. No one who has hunted for many
seasons can fail to observe that in all well-regu-
lated kennels there is less rating and less whip-
cracking than was wont to be considered necessary
in the brave days of old. But this educational
process involves a considerable amount of labour
on huntsman and whipper-in, labour for which
they are not given the credit they deserve by
many of the unobservant and careless followers
of the sport of kings.

326 THE SPORT OF KINGS

Nor is this the only work which devolves
upon the huntsman during these, his easy months,
as the ignorant sometimes call them. There are
the young puppies to look after, to feed, and get
into proper condition to send out to walk ; there
are the walks to be selected, and the particular
fancies of puppy walkers to receive due considera-
tion. The keepers' dinner, too, is a matter of no
small importance. There are keepers and keepers,
and many keepers who are friendly to hunting
require to be considered when it comes to the
moving or non-moving of litters. Of course, the
huntsman and his Master would prefer to have
litters undisturbed till they go round on the early
autumn mornings to teach the young foxes their
business. But in some places it may be necessary
to remove a litter or two, and this removal neces-
sarily involves a considerable amount of diplomacy.
Then there are new keepers to make friends with,
and new tenants, both shooting and agricultural,
to get in touch with, and altogether every hour
finds its work till Peterborough Hound Show
brings our huntsman friends together again to
compare notes. Then after Peterborough comes
the overture in the shape of " long exercise," and
then once again will the season of seasons be
with us.

In the meantime I would point out that it is
scarcely fair to expect the Master and huntsman to
do everything during the off months. Every hunt-
ing man can and should do something to assist in
keeping " the tambourine a-rowling." He should
remember that non-hunting farmers feel an interest
in agricultural shows, and, " assuming a virtue if he
hath it not," he should attend those shows as well

FOR NEXT SEASON 327

as subscribe to them, and discourse as learnedly as
he is able of " prize fat oxen and of sheep." It is
by pulling together that the hunting world goes on
harmoniously, and if we continue to pull together,
thinking of the tastes of others as well as of our
own, the horn of the hunter will be heard in the
land for ages yet to come.

CHAPTER LIX

PETERBOROUGH

Standing out as it does, a beacon to show that
another hunting season will quickly be with us,
Peterborough Hound Show is heartily welcomed
by fox-hunters from John o' Groat's to Land's
End. Epsom and Ascot are over, in early
countries the corn is, or ought to be, in full ear,
and our eyes, which have been wearying for the
sight since the parching winds of March and the
more or less sunny skies of April brought the last
season to an end, are gladdened by a glimpse of
red coats and the hounds which we love to follow.
Yes, there is no doubt about it, Peterborough
Hound Show is the summer festival of the hunting
man. Talk not to him when you meet him on
the flags at Peterborough of the weights for the
next handicap or the delights of the meetings
behind the Ditch. All his thoughts are now con-
centrated on the progeny of Warwickshire Harper,
or Tuscan, and on the comparative merits of the
young hounds which are giving the judges so much
trouble before they can arrive at a decision.

It is, to my thinking, a very satisfactory sign
that year after year Peterborough Show increases
in popularity. There are old-fashioned people
who exclaim against hound shows and everything

PETERBOROUGH 329

thereunto appertaining. Say they, " We have not
the sport which we used to have ; hounds are bred
entirely for appearance and not for work ; nose is
entirely neglected, and 'cry' is thought nothing
about. In fact, the show-yard standard is alone
considered when breeding hounds." To this I
am almost inclined to say with the celebrated Mr.
Birchill, " Fudge ! "

Let us examine the objections of these critics
one by one. In the first place is it true that we
have not as good sport now as our ancestors
enjoyed ? I am inclined to think, taking the
altered circumstances under which hunting is
carried on, that we have. Short-running foxes
there are, and some of the reasons for this I have
already stated ; but short-running foxes are not to
be charged to the account of hounds. Given a
good stout fox, hounds hunt as well and chase as
hard as they did in the earlier years of the century,
and the Pools Osiers run with the Warwickshire,
and the Melbourne Hall run with the York and
Ainsty are worthy of a place beside the great
Billesdon Coplow run itself. It may be objected
that on these occasions there was a great scent.
Granted, but on many and many an occasion in
recent seasons I have seen hounds, when the field
would let them, hunt as closely as beagles when
scent served badly — seen them walk up to a fox
and then bustle him up for ten minutes, as I have
had occasion to relate.1 As for the question of
cry, no one can deny that many packs are very
light tongued ; but pace the critics, this is not a
modern defect. It is many years since Sir Thomas
Mostyn hunted the Oxfordshire country, and his

1 See page 321.

330 THE SPORT OF KINGS

hounds had not much to say to it. I have also
been informed that when Mr. Osbaldeston hunted
the Burton country his hounds were not dis-
tinguished for their cry. This was long before
the days of Peterborough. With respect to light-
ness of tongue, and speaking for the hounds with
which I have hunted a good deal, in every instance
I have found a great improvement in " cry " in
the last twenty years. It is, however, an acknow-
ledged difficulty to keep the " cry " in a pack.
That the foxhound is a very inbred animal is an
admitted fact, and whether it is on that account,
or that it is a reversion to some prepotent ancestor
used as a cross, of which no record remains, it is
impossible to say. But the fact remains, and it is
a difficulty which besets every huntsman in breed-
ing, and it seems scarcely necessary to insist that
in woodland countries, and there is a great deal of
woodland in most of the hunting countries, cry is
a thing which huntsmen cannot do without.

So much for the objections ; now let us look on
the other side of the picture and see what hound
shows have done for us. The hound show — there
have been occasional shows of hounds, but there is
only one hound show recognised by hunting men
— was originated by Mr. Thomas Parrington in
1859 in connection with the Cleveland Agricultural
Society, and was held in connection with that show
till 1864, when it was held at the same time as
the great Yorkshire show. During the time Mr.
Parrington held the Secretaryship of the Yorkshire
Agricultural Society the hound show continued to
be a movable feast held in connection with the
Yorkshire Show, and when in 1877 Mr. Thomas
Parrington retired, Mr. Barford got the show to

PETERBOROUGH 331

Peterborough, where it has remained ever since.
The hound show has thus lasted forty years.

Now forty years ago, except in a few packs,
the questions of straightness, of shoulders, feet, and
bone were very little thought of. Even famous
provincial packs were a very unlevel lot, and, to
use the words of the famous Bramham Moor
huntsman, Charles Treadwell, they were all "uncles
and aunts and cousins." But now all over the
country hounds are more level, straight hounds
are to be found in every pack, and the result is
that hounds wear better than they did years ago.
Of what use, it may be asked, is a hound with the
finest of noses if his shoulders are so upright that
they give way in his first or second season. I
think if I were to be asked what was the best fox-
hound I ever saw as a working hound, the hound
that entered the readiest and distinguished himself
the most during the early weeks of his first season,
I should name Bluecap, a hound whose pedigree I
forget. Bluecap came of a good strain ; he was
well ribbed, had good loins and quarters and
plenty of bone, but — his shoulders were upright.
He took to his work the first day he was out and
ran well at head, indeed he and a three -season
hunter were one or other of them always with the
lead, and it was a sight to see how Bluecap drove
on after his fox down the steep hill-sides of the
rough country in which he first was introduced to
the business of his life, and he was absolutely the
first to take the fox. Next time I was out I asked
for Bluecap, and was told he was slightly lame,
and by Christmas he was a cripple, and as such
condemned. I begged for his life, took him home
with me, and with the rest and the liberty he

332 THE SPORT OF KINGS

gradually grew sounder, and he joined the pack
again when his second cub-hunting season came
round. But long before the season was over he
broke down irretrievably and was destroyed.

Now before the time of the hound shows there
were far more cases of this sort in provincial packs
than there have been since, and the gradual im-
provement in hounds all over the country is — not
in all respects, perhaps, but at any rate in some
respects — due to the influence of hound shows.

Peterborough is a pleasant reunion, and it is
interesting, if you chance to be admitted to the
privilege, to listen to the huntsman in uniform
and the huntsman in mufti as they exchange notes
about the hounds they have before them, or relate
incidents which have happened in the hunting
field during the last season. It will go hard if
you do not learn something worth knowing re-
specting the ways of the fox or the instincts of the
hound if you should chance to listen to a conversa-
tion amongst those experts. At any rate that has
been my experience, and 1 was present at the
second hound show, and have attended a great
many since, not having missed one for several
years.

The social side of the Peterborough show is
also especially pleasant to the hunting man, who
is generally a social being. He meets his friends
from a distance ; he compares notes with them,
and he makes arrangements for the forthcoming
season, receiving and giving invitations to " come
and have a look at our country."

Yes, Peterborough is essentially one feature of
the fox-hunter's year. It has its educational and
its pleasure side, and we could not do without it.

PETERBOROUGH 333

But we do not want a multiplication of hound
shows. Huntsmen have something else to do than
to go round the country " pot hunting." They
have no time to devote to getting hounds ready
for a show with a date before the Peterborough
gathering, and by the time they get home from it
it is about time they were beginning with the long
exercise, if they want to have their hounds fit for
the early cubbing.

There is only one Peterborough, and we have
not room for more.

CHAPTER LX

THE FUTURE OF FOX-HUNTING

Perish the thought, may the day never come
When the gorse is uprooted, the foxhound is dumb.

The pessimist says that for fox-hunting there is no
future, that fox-hunting is doomed, and that in a
few years the horn of the hunter will no longer
be heard in the land. Foxes, says he, are scarcer
than ever, over- preservation of game is more
rife than ever, and if hunting is to continue
it will be the hunting of the carted deer or
the strong-smelling but unsatisfactory red herring.
This, I take it, is about tantamount to saying
that hunting as it has been known in these islands
for upwards of a couple of centuries will cease
to exist.

Now I am not a pessimist ; I do not in my
heart of hearts think that hunting is on its last
legs. I think it will last my time, and very much
longer, and I hope that a hundred years hence
Barkby Holt and John o' Gaunt's, Askham Bog
and Court House Spring, Bilbrough Gorse and
Rougemont Carr will echo the merry notes of horn
and hound as they do now.

But the pessimist is often a man who has a
shrewd idea of how things are tending, and the

FUTURE OF FOX-HUNTING 335

mistake he makes is that he takes a tendency for an
accomplished fact, and though I hold the opinion
that fox-hunting was never stronger than it is at
present, I cannot get away from the fact that a
danger to fox-hunting exists in many places. But
it is a danger which, if tackled in the right way,
can easily be surmounted. Similar danger has
beset the noble sport in times gone by, and it has
been overcome.

I take it that no one — save a few ill-conditioned
brutes and some faddists, who think to crush the
sporting instincts which are the survival of centuries
with a little vulgar invective and false logic —
no one wishes to have fox-hunting done away
with altogether. Men may have ideas as to how
many foxes they ought to have on their estates ;
if they be shooting men they may think they
can have that number, and there will be no
harm done, but I cannot think that there is any
man aspiring to the name of gentleman who
allows hounds to draw his coverts, and yet who
does all in his power to destroy foxes, and to
spoil the sport of the men he calls his friends.
Yet, notwithstanding this, there is no getting away
from the fact that there is a scarcity of foxes which
should not exist, and that this scarcity of foxes is
in the main due to the over-preservation of game.

In many countries in which I have hunted —
countries admirably adapted for foxes, and where
foxes should have been running about in all direc-
tions in the cub-hunting season — there was a
marked scarcity, and on more than one opening
day hounds drew covert after covert without there
being the sign of a fox. A continuance of this —
"ill-luck" shall I call it? — can only have one

336 THE SPORT OF KINGS

termination. Country gentlemen who want the
sport and visitors who come to hunt will go where
they can get it, and some countries which have
hitherto had a reputation second only to the Shires,
will be hunted in very different fashion — if at all.
What this would mean to a rural population,
already harassed by low prices, it is difficult to
calculate ; but I may say that no one knows the
amount of money circulated in a good hunting
country, and that it amounts to more thousands
per annum than outsiders would think it does
hundreds.

And I cannot but think that the only reason
for the scarcity of foxes which prevails in some
parts is due to nothing but the over-preservation
of game, or the desire to over -preserve game,
which is, perhaps, another thing. A man has
coverts which would carry 200 pheasants well, but
he wants to have 400, and tells his keepers so.
He overstocks his coverts — Mr. Keeper, perhaps,
takes a few for himself — and when the day of the
big shoot comes there is nothing like the show the
master expects, and the keeper tells him that it is
all " they blessed foxes." Then says the master,
"Don't keep too many foxes, Velveteens. I don't
want the coverts drawing blank, but have foxes in
moderation." At which Velveteens puts his tongue
in his cheek, and the last fox on the estate is
" molested." What causes the scarcity of foxes is
meddling with them in the breeding season, and
until this is put a stop to foxes will continue to be
scarce. A keeper of my acquaintance, who has a
wide experience, and who has always plenty of
foxes on the estate under his charge, and an in-
finitely better head of game than is to be found on

FUTURE OF FOX-HUNTING 337

estates where foxes are scarce, holds that there is
no difficulty in having foxes and pheasants ; it is
only a little extra trouble in the nesting season,
and till the birds can roost. Indeed, he says that
really there is no extra trouble, for there are more
dangerous enemies to young pheasants than foxes.
An instance of this is given in the Field of
2 1 st November 1896. A gentleman who owns
six coverts of an average of five acres each,
reared in 1895 I^° pheasants. Hounds were
allowed to draw the coverts when necessary, and
there was a litter of cubs in them. In the first
shoot 117 pheasants were killed ; in the second
1 1 were killed, hens being allowed to escape.
I fancy this is a better average of birds to
hand than falls to the lot of the man who pre-
serves extravagantly ; and with the pheasants
there were the foxes, for hounds drew the coverts
seven weeks in succession, and only once drew
them blank.

There is another phase of the question which
game-preservers would do well to consider. Over-
preservation of game will not be allowed to
continue long. With farming in its present
depressed condition, the farmer is not likely to
put up with his land being overstocked with
game. A legitimate quantity of game he will be
glad to see, but 400 pheasants where 200 should
be will not unnaturally set up his back. And
it may be laid down as a certainty that if fox-
hunting goes down, game preserving will not
survive it long.

But I do not expect to see fox-hunting die out.
As I have said, it will last my time and longer.
What I do expect to see is a better understanding

z

338 THE SPORT OF KINGS

of what is due from the game-preserver to the
fox-hunter, and the two sports go on together in
the future as they have done in the past, with a
little breeze, perhaps, now and again, but, as a rule,
with that amity which should exist between sports-
men, whatever the branch of sport they follow.

CHAPTER LXI

THE HUNT DINNER
A dinner of friends. — Timon of Athens.

"The old order changeth for the new," sang the
late Poet Laureate, but there are old things which
pass away which are much to be regretted, and the
old-fashioned hunt dinner is one of them. How
such a good old custom as the hunt dinner came
to fall into desuetude is one of those things which
it is difficult to understand, and the more especially
as we are, as a people, prone to the multiplying of
public dinners. But that the old hunt dinner is
a thing of the past is certain, as much a thing of
the past as the old-fashioned hunt ball, which it
would be now impossible to revive. For in the
earlier half of the century, when landowners and
the leading farmers and tradesmen, and the men
who came to stay in the country for the season's
hunting, if any such there were in those days (with
the exception, of course, of those who went to the
Shires for their sport), joined their forces and
patronised the hunt ball, which was got up by the
enthusiastic secretary of the hunt, every one knew
every one else, there was no trouble or heart-
burning about invitations, and pleasant functions
were enjoyed which would be scarcely possible

34-o THE SPORT OF KINGS

under our more artificial mode of living. But
though it may be impossible or even undesirable to
revive the old-fashioned hunt ball, a question, by
the way, which I do not intend to discuss or even
venture an opinion upon, there seems to me to be
no reason why the old-fashioned hunt dinner
might not be restored to its former place amongst
the social functions of a hunt, and that with both
pleasure and profit to all concerned.

It has been urged in some quarters that the
luncheon at the puppy judging, which has now
become an annual occurrence in almost every hunt,
well supplies the place of the old hunt dinner. In
some respects perhaps it does, but it does not
reach so far as the old dinner did, and there seems
to me no reason why we should not have both.
Certainly the luncheon is better than nothing at
all in the way of bringing those who hunt and those
who do not together socially, but it cannot be said
to effect this purpose so well as the dinner, over
which more time is spent, and which is to a certain
extent a more ceremonious affair. It will perhaps
be urged by some who cast their eye over this
page that the hunt dinner still exists, and perhaps it
may in some places, though they do not come within
my ken, but not so very many years ago the hunt
dinner was looked forward to almost everywhere
as one of the chief functions of the year, and now
I never hear of one. For those exclusive clubs
which name themselves after some hunt, and
which number but few members, which have a
dress uniform, and which dine together once or
twice in a year cannot be said to have or give hunt
dinners.

In the good old days it was one of the rules of

THE HUNT DINNER 341

every hunt that the members should meet and
dine once in each year at least, and the rule of one
old-established hunt runs as follows, and it is
noticeable that it is the first rule on the list : —
" That the members of the hunt shall meet and
dine twice in each year at the commencement and
conclusion of the hunting season, at such times
and places as the president shall appoint, giving
each member a week's notice." It was in the hunt
of which I am speaking a rule that every member
was to attend the meeting and dinner, and in case
of absence he was fined 5s., one half of which
went towards the dinner bill, and the other to the
funds of the hunt. It was also stipulated that the
president should call for the bill two hours after
the cloth was drawn. Of course, when the country
became more populated, and railways enabled men
to get about more, these rules soon became practi-
cally of no effect, men of position would not pay
the fines, and it was necessary to keep on good
terms with them. So the old-fashioned dinner
where the "shot" was shared by all who were
present became a thing of the past, and I may say
that the last occasion of a public dinner at which
the bill was divided that I know of was a church-
warden's dinner after an archidiaconal visitation.

Then came the hunt dinner as I knew it. It
was really, so far as the viands were concerned,
something better than a high - class market
ordinary, and was generally supplied at about
3s. 6d. each. It was a more decorous gathering
than its predecessor, men were living in a more
decorous age, and the heavy drinking which was
present at most social gatherings of a public nature
in the latter days of the eighteenth century

342 THE SPORT OF KINGS

entirely disappeared. At the last hunt dinner
which I attended — it was one of the most successful
and enjoyable, by the way, that I ever was at — the
Master was in the chair, and he was supported by
a parson, who was as good over a country as he
was in the pulpit, and as indefatigable in attending
to his parish as he was eloquent ; by the principal
landowners in the hunt, all the large farmers and
some of the smaller ones, who had tickets sent
them gratis, and some of the merchants and
tradesmen of the town in which the dinner was
held, men who never went hunting themselves,
but who had a kindly interest in the sport of their
friends and customers. No one who attended that
dinner could fail to perceive that it was a source
of strength to the hunt, and even to hunting in
general. For it is obviously to the interest of
hunting that those who do not hunt should have
a kindly feeling towards the sport, especially in
these days of log-rolling fanatics. At the dinner
in question the speeches were to the point and
not prosy, the Master gave some sound advice to
his followers, " the song, the story, and the merry
jest went round," and there was not a dull minute
from the " find to the finish." In the words of
the poet —

Friendship, amidst the jolly throng,

Through generous ardour leads,
And tunes the rustic huntsman's song,

Or tells of former deeds.
And now they fill their glasses high,

While mirth lights every face,
And toast with many a joyful cry,

" The champions of the chase."

That such gatherings, by the bringing of men

THE HUNT DINNER 343

of different classes into friendly intercourse
together, with ostensibly one common object,
cannot fail to do good to sport, I, for one, believe,
and I should certainly like to see the old hunt
dinner again become one of the leading social
functions in every hunting country.

CHAPTER LXII

POINT-TO-POINT RACES

It is difficult to account for the increasing popu-
larity of point-to-point gatherings, but that it is
increasing there can be no doubt. From far and
wide people flock to the trysting-place when it is
announced that this or the other hunt is going to
hold its annual meeting ; there are always large
fields, and the interest taken in the contests is
abnormal when it is taken into consideration how
little the spectators see of the fun, or for the
matter of that hear of it, for a perfectly lucid
account of " how they came " is not easy to get
from the average point-to-point jockey. Nor is
this to his discredit, for it must not be forgotten
by his critics that he is riding at a pace to which
he is unaccustomed, and that he has nothing but
the country in front of him. That the men who
ride in the races enjoy their fun I make no doubt,
but though I have attended a good many point-
to-point meetings in my time, I never could quite
see where the fun came in for the spectator. The
vague rules, if rules they can be called, which
govern the sport are by no means conducive to its
benefit. The National Hunt Committee practi-
cally refuse to legislate for point-to-point races,
for the rules they have made respecting registration

POINT-TO-POINT RACES 345

in the calendar, the limiting of the number of
races to be run, and the number of flags to be put
up can scarcely be called legislation of an active
kind. And the consequence is that, popular as
point-to-point races are, they could be made still
more so were there some properly constituted
authority to consolidate the rules, and to see that
they are carried out. For abuses are springing up
in all directions, and will continue to increase if
there is not something done to meet the growing
difficulties.

First, then, as to the management of the meet-
ings. It would, I think, be a great pity to alter
the general character of these meetings by taking
away their al fresco character, which, in my mind,
is one of their chief charms, and therefore I
would strictly adhere to the rule or custom, call
it as you will, which says that there shall be no
stand or enclosure where admission fees shall be
charged. A luncheon tent, at which the members
of the hunt can entertain their friends, is quite
sufficient erection to put up at a point-to-point
meeting. But in other respects a change would
be salutary. For instance, why should not the
jockeys ride in colours ? Is there really any
reason why it should be impossible to recognise
the various horses in running ? I trow there is
not, and the fact of the horses being ridden in
colours would not in any way detract from the
amateur character of the racing. The events
might also still be restricted in number, for at
such gatherings as these the social aspect is the
one that should be most regarded, and a crowded
programme, " half-hour time," savours too much
of business. But I do not see any reason why the

346 THE SPORT OF KINGS

course should not be chosen so that people can
have some chance of seeing the larger portion of
the race, including the finish, and in order that
this should be accomplished there should be a
flagged course.

I now come to another portion of the subject,
and that not altogether a pleasant one. At present
there is no rule to prevent any one, no matter who
he is, from running a horse or riding one in a
point-to-point race provided he is qualified by
being a member of the hunt under whose auspices
it takes place, or a farmer resident within the
district of the hunt. Yet I am sorry to say that I
have seen more ramps at point-to-point meetings,
and more contraventions of the spirit which under-
lies all racing law, and without which no racing
would long be possible, than I have done in a com-
paratively wide and long experience in the racing
world. It may be argued that the monetary
interest is not large enough to tempt men to go
wrong, that there is little betting, and that there-
fore every man who runs his horse in the point-
to-point races held by his hunt must go straight.
Those who believe in such arguments as these may
be referred to local flower and poultry shows for
examples to the contrary of their belief. I re-
member on one occasion when a match was the
result of a point-to-point race, the owner of one
horse expressing himself certain that but for
accident he could have won. The match was
to be run over four miles of country, and the
winner of the previous race was the non-favourite,
bookmakers asking for and obtaining odds of 6 to
4. And the non-favourite came in alone, for the
favourite, as well mannered a horse as ever wore

POINT-TO-POINT RACES 347

bridle, bolted in the middle of a field, refused per-
sistently, and, in a word, was a non-trier. The
man who rode him would not have been allowed
to get up on any course under the rules, nor
would the man who had the management of him
have been allowed on one. Yet here no notice was
taken of the matter, though so palpable was it to
any one with a pair of good glasses and any ex-
perience in watching "horses in running," that I
offered to lay 100 to 30 on the non-favourite
before they had gone a quarter of a mile, and
could not find a taker.

It may be said that this was at a match, and
that therefore those who made the match were
responsible for the people with whom they were
dealing, or to put it another way, that this was
not a point-to-point gathering in the true sense
of the term. Admitted, but for all that it should
have been run under some rules which would have
enabled the stewards to have punished a wrong-
doer. But to go to the more legitimate point-to-
point gathering. To begin with, how many are
there who do not go the course ? I know of one
instance where the jockeys were told they might
go through the gates they found open. One of
the competitors had a friend or two who happened
to be near an awkward gate, and somehow those
awkward gates flew open at his approach, though
it is strange to relate that after he had passed
through they somehow closed themselves. That
man won ; it would have been strange if he had
not, and the objection which naturally followed
was over-ruled, as the man had not opened the
gate himself. Now I would ask would it not
have been better and fairer if there had been a

348 THE SPORT OF KINGS

course in every other fence of which there was
a flag, so that men would have to keep somewhat
together, and it would be easily detected when a
man went out of the course. More than either
once or twice have I seen men jump in four or
five fields from home, after " waiting on their
field," a la late Tom Oliver, behind a haystack,
and run second or third. I cannot say that I have
ever heard of the money being claimed under these
circumstances, and in one or two instances the
man who ran second under such circumstances
did not return to scale to weigh in. He got no
money directly, it is true, but he got what he
wanted ; that is, he got it published in the
papers that his horse was second in a good field,
in a few weeks the circumstances of how he got
second are forgotten, and his horse is considerably
enhanced in value by a fictitious performance of
which the owner does not fail to make good use.
There are plenty of other bits of sharp practice
done in point-to-point races, of which cognisance
should be taken, and which merit more or less
severe punishment. Why then should not the
Masters of Hounds Committee formulate a few
rules with the sanction of the National Hunt
Committee, since the latter body does not seem
inclined to take the initiative ? If this were done,
and fines and warnings off possible under their
rule, we should soon see point-to-point racing
occupy a very much better position in the sporting
world than it does at present.

CHAPTER LXIII

THE OPENING DAY OF THE SEASON

Welcome the chase, with its balmy November !

Welcome the colours of scarlet and grey !
Welcome the friends that we meet and remember,

Year after year on our opening day !
Blame me not, reader, nor say I'm romancing :

Phantom-shaped horsemen I seem to discern,
Riding among the gay squadron advancing,

Each one equipped for the chase in his turn.
Close by the side of each sportsman is riding

The shade of some friend who has loved him in chase,
Rousing him, helping him, stirring and guiding,

The hunter who bears him with mettle and race.

W. Phillpotts Williams.

Most of us who donned the "war-paint" on the
opening day of the season, those of us, I mean,
who can look back over the vista of many seasons,
felt something of what Mr. Phillpotts Williams
has described in such thrilling verse in Baily's
Magazine, as they jogged along on an old
favourite hunter to the " Kirby Gate " of their
own country. Yes, the opening day brings back
to all but the youngest of us memories, half sweet,
half painful ; memories, moreover, of a glorious
past. Each field brings some well-remembered
incident vividly before us, each fence tells of
triumph and disaster, each covert tells of glorious

350 THE SPORT OF KINGS

gallops in the past and of high hopes for the
future.

What a merry band we were, it seems but
yesterday, that rode along this road a quarter of a
century ago, and how thinned are our numbers.
One has taken to miserly habits, perhaps, and
thinks of nothing but his investments, never a
true sportsman this, you would say, even when at
his best, and probably you would be right, though
we have Miser Elwes as an example of the con-
trary. Another has taken to politics, unlucky
man ; many are dead, more have lost their nerve,
and with their nerve their liking for the sport.
But you who are left, keen as of yore, what a
glorious band of brothers are you ! ready to have
a shy with the young ones yet, and having a little
more judgment than the gallant bruisers who are
fifteen or twenty years your junior, you not in-
frequently score off them, to your own delight
and their discomfiture. But these said youngsters
crowd round you as you ride to covert on the
opening morning — that is, if they be of the true
hunting stock, anxious to know what took place
in the " brave days of old." To them anecdotes
of a bygone day are ever welcome, and they never
tire of listening to stories of the prowess of hunts-
men, or the doings of Tuneful and Solomon, and
others of the heroes of old.

There is, I take it, always something of the
holiday character about an opening meet. The
carriage element is always greatly in evidence, and
at the opening meet you see many people who
perhaps never attend another fixture unless it be
the last. The Master is never in a hurry on this
occasion, and he gives the late ones plenty of law.

OPENING DAY OF SEASON 351

Then there is a certain amount of coffee-housing
to be done. One man has been salmon-fishing in
Norway, and has wonderful tales to relate to an
admiring crowd ; another has been to Newmarket,
and had a capital time, had a pony on the winner
of the Cambridgeshire at a long shot, don't you
know ; whilst another, who has been tempting
fortune on the classic Heath, sad to relate, can
tell of nothing but a long series of seconds. Men
from the moors and forests cannot leave their
experiences unrelated to their friends, and here
and there may be heard men dilating on the
charms of the turnips, or of knocking over
rocketers in a warm corner. But, strange to
say, though almost every man with whom you
exchange greetings has no hesitation in stating
that he has been having a good time, one and all
seem to be convinced that in the coming few
months they are to have a better — in other words,
on every man's countenance may be read, as plain
as print, " the summer of our discontent has passed."
Yet the opening day has its anxieties as well as
its social pleasure, and it is to be hoped its good
gallop. There are doubtful parties to be pro-
pitiated, and in this, be it said passim, the field
might strengthen the Master's hand more than
they do. Then again, there are sundry reports
from outlying portions of the country, sometimes
brought in by residents who have their own ideas
as to what is required of the hunt, and who are
by no means backward in proffering advice —
sturdy, good fellows these, and sportsmen to the
backbone, whose views must be met as far as
practicable, yet whose rivalries it is not at all
times easy to keep from appearing.

352 THE SPORT OF KINGS

One thing which must strike the man who sees
an opening meet for the first time is the heartiness
of the greeting which men of all ranks and of all
opinions greet each other. They have probably
nothing in common but the love of hunting, but
that love of hunting is a firm bond of fellowship
— perhaps it would not be too much to say that
it is the firmest which exists. The scholar chats
gaily to the man who rarely opens a book ; the
Radical member for the nearest borough is listen-
ing eagerly to the old-fashioned and uncompro-
mising Tory of the old school, who is telling him
how hounds raced away from Millby Willow beds
last Thursday and rolled their fox over in the
open at the end of forty minutes — "A run worthy
of the middle of the season, by Jove, sir" ; the
owner of a choice little stud of racehorses, who
has a horse that has a good chance for the Derby,
and whose coverts we are going to try, is thinking
more anxiously now about the stoutness of his
foxes than the staying power of the colt in
question, and is discussing the draw with the
Master and the huntsman ; even the keeper, if
he be a good fellow, and a lot of them are good
fellows, is relating to a knot of his cronies what a
grand show of foxes he has, and how gallantly the
young ones all went away the last time hounds
were out cubbing. Were it not for this common
bond we should many of us never know of the
good points of our fellows, and we should miss
many a cherished friendship.

But there is no time to moralise ; the Master
has given the signal. Memories and reflections
must give place to the business of the hour,
for hounds are already in cover. There is a

OPENING DAY OF SEASON 353

whimper which tells that a fox is not far off ; at
the corner the whipper-in has viewed him away ;
a few sharp staccato notes of the huntsman's horn ;
the thunder of galloping horses ; the crash of the
first fence, and the splash of water from the wide
drain at the far side ; a loose horse or two, and
the season has fairly begun. That my readers
may look back upon it with satisfaction and
pleasure when the pining winds of spring and the
hedged-up gap tell us that it draws to a close is
my earnest wish.

2 A

CHAPTER LXIV

ON HOLLOAING

Holloa ! what storm is this ? — Titus Andronicus.

One of the curious things in connection with
hunting is the morbid desire which many people
who know nothing whatever about the subject,
have to write about it. Novelists whose ideas of
sport are of the most limited description are keen
to describe a hunting run in all its infinite variety ;
they delight in giving gorgeous but quite in-
accurate descriptions of men, horses, and hounds ;
the fences their heroes and heroines get over in
such easy style would astound Dick Christian him-
self, and, indeed, the whole thing is done generally
in a manner which is essentially ridiculous. It has
been said that an eminent modern novelist paid one
visit to the Derby, and then considered himself
capable of writing a chapter which is practically a
dissertation on the Turf ; and probably all that
the novelists to whom I allude have seen of hunt-
ing has been from a distance and in a carriage.
Truly ridiculous are the descriptions which we
frequently find in fiction of the king of sports,
and in no one particular are these descriptions so
ridiculous and so inaccurate as they are on the
question of holloas and noise in general.

ON HOLLOAING 355

Hunting in France, we have been told, is, or
was, conducted largely on the principle of much
holloaing and horn-blowing, so these novelists who
would hold a mirror up to nature as seen in the
hunting field give us any amount of noise in their
descriptions ; they seem to think that therein lies
the great charm of fox-hunting, and the heroes
and heroines and their comrades shout " Yoicks,
tally-ho ! " and other equally absurd and quite un-
called for holloas with a frequency which must
have made the politest of huntsmen use powerful
language.

It is a curious thing how an idea gets possession
of people respecting any subject of which they
have no practical knowledge, and there are
many well-meaning citizens who think that fox-
hunting mainly consists of making a noise and
jumping impossible places.

Fox-hunting is something very different to
this, but I am of opinion that though we are not
always shouting "Yoicks, tally-ho ! " or otherwise
making ourselves absurd, in many countries which
I have the pleasure of visiting we have far too
much holloaing. The tyro in hunting may well
lay to heart two anecdotes which are told about
the late Sir Tatton Sykes when he hunted the
country now presided over by Lord Middleton.
On one occasion when a gentleman was holloaing
excitedly, Sir Tatton rode up to him and said,
" I am much obliged to you for the trouble you
are taking, sir, but I pay those men," pointing to
Carter and his whippers-in, "to make all the
noise." On the other occasion a gentleman who
had been halloaing with great perseverance was
heard to condemn the hounds for their stupidity

356 THE SPORT OF KINGS

in not coming to his holloa. Sir Tatton over-
heard him, and crushed him with the rejoinder,
" My hounds never take any notice of what foolish
people say."

Certainly those who have nothing to do with
the hounds should be chary of their voices, and a
novice should never speak to hounds under any
circumstances. He cannot do any good, and he
may do a great deal of harm by attracting their
attention. When a fox breaks covert one clear
holloa is as good, nay better, than a hundred.
The huntsman is on the look-out for it, and in
nine cases out of ten he will hear the first holloa.
But it is entirely within his discretion whether he
goes to the holloa or not — a matter which those
who holloa so lustily seem to forget, for they keep
on holloaing as if the fox they had seen was the
only one in the county, whilst probably the hounds
have slipped away with another fox at the other
end of the covert, and they are in the happy
position of being " left." It is curious that ex-
perience does not always teach wisdom in these
matters, and that men do not endeavour to watch
the whole of the game more than they do.

It cannot be too clearly impressed upon hunt-
ing men that during a run they should be especially
careful of holloaing, as in a well-stocked country
it is very easy to holloa hounds on to a fresh fox.
Only long experience and the habit of reckoning
up every circumstance which takes place in a run
can enable a man to tell a beaten fox with any
degree of certainty. Only those who have seen
him do it can be made to believe how a good fox
will " straighten himself up " when he knows that
he is seen. A few seasons ago I had a curious

ON HOLLOAING 3S7

instance of this. We had had a very hard day,
run our first fox to ground after a brilliant fifteen
minutes, and killed a second in about the same
time. Then we found a third who led us a merry
dance of forty-five minutes, the pace being strong
all the way, and only about a dozen of us were
left out of a large field, when he got into a big
wood, which was and is a famous stronghold for
foxes. I was standing in a ride when I saw a fox
peep out amongst some briars. I did not move,
and presently he crossed a small open space and
went over the ride as lightly and apparently as
fresh as when he had broken covert three-quarters
of an hour earlier. Hounds were running hard,
and when the huntsman came up to me I said I
believed they had changed. " I don't see how
they could, sir, they've never been off the line,"
was his reply, and in another minute we saw the
fox when he did not see us, and this time there
was no mistake about whether he was the run fox,
and hounds soon had hold of him.

Occasionally, when scent serves none too well,
hounds may have been running for perhaps up-
wards of an hour with a fox, and they will then, if
they have kept at him, have run him very nearly
tired, unless he should be a very good fox indeed.
If the country is well stocked with foxes, it is very
likely that one, or perhaps more, foxes will have
been disturbed, and then it behoves a man to be
very careful indeed how he holloas. Better
far is it to ride up to Master or huntsman,
or one of the other hunt servants, and tell them
exactly what he has seen. He should be careful
to note both in what direction the fox came
from and in what direction he was going, and

358 THE SPORT OF KINGS

every particular about his size, shape, and colour
is of importance.

When the huntsman has these facts before him
he will be able to form an opinion with some
degree of certainty as to whether it is his run fox
or not. It should be borne in mind that it is
quite possible under the circumstances to which I
have alluded for there to be two or three foxes on
foot, and if all of them were holloaed at, nothing
but confusion would ensue.

Many a fox owes his life to the enthusiasm of
some excited follower of the chase. When a fox
is beaten the greatest care should be taken not to
holloa at him. It sharpens him up at a critical
period in the run, to begin with ; he makes a final
effort, the holloa gets hounds' heads up, and he is
probably left behind. One golden rule there is
which should never be broken — never holloa at a
fox when he is laid down. Silent telegraphy is the
only policy to adopt under such circumstances.

I always think that one of the charms of early
cub-hunting is the absence of holloaing and the
quietness which characterises it, for in a well-
regulated establishment there is no wild holloaing
whenever a fox is viewed over a ride, simply a
"tally-ho, over," to tell that he has gone.

It is curious how some people delight in holloa-
ing at the top of their voices, and the discordant
yells with which a fox who shows himself outside
a covert is so frequently greeted must make his
heart quake, and must be a source of deep vexa-
tion to the huntsman.

Now, if that worthy is a noisy man himself, he
cannot well blame his field for copying his bad
example. I know a huntsman who is really never

ON HOLLOAING 359

silent from " morn to dewy eve." He makes a
good deal of noise when drawing, and when he
has found his fox, horn and voice are never quiet
till he has killed him. I will give him his due,
and say that his hounds are in good control, that
they come to him freely and without any of that
rating which is so grating to the ear of a man who
loves the foxhound, and I have been asked how it
could matter whether he were silent or noisy when
his hounds knew what he meant and obeyed him ?
Perhaps had he been hunting alone or with a small
field it would not have made much matter. But,
unfortunately, there was a large field always out
with him, and the field, as fields will, took to
emulating their huntsman in the way of making a
noise. The result was that hounds lost many a
fox which they should have killed, and if ever
they ran one into a covert which was well supplied
there was holloaing at every point of the compass,
the huntsman added to the chorus with horn and
voice, and the result was a change of foxes.

But to a quiet huntsman incessant holloaing is
an annoyance and a hindrance, and I would have
my young friends know that a quiet huntsman is
by no means necessarily a slow one or even a silent
one. A man may be very quiet and yet be very
cheery, and a quiet man is always cheery at the
right time.

It is curious how opinions change respecting
what is the correct thing to do. I can remember
some trencher-fed packs in my early boyhood,
where every man hunted his own hound, though,
of course, there was a nominal huntsman, and
many of the field carried a horn. It is needless
for me to point out what a sweet confusion

360 THE SPORT OF KINGS

ensued when three or four horns were being blown
in more or less discordant fashion, and when each
man was cheering on his own hound. That under
such conditions good sport was enjoyed upon occa-
sion is not due to the merits of the system ; but
good sport they did show, these fine old fellows
who hunted with trencher-fed packs, and it was in
great measure due to the fact that fields ruled
small, and that those who went out had a know-
ledge of woodcraft which the average hunting man
of the present day is deficient in. Soon, however,
the superfluous horns were done away with, and I
have seen instructions to sportsmen which told that
" on no occasion were they to speak to hounds
when the huntsman was near."

When hounds find a fox in a thick covert in
which there are more foxes than one it is most im-
portant that there should be no interference on the
part of the public. The huntsman may be trusted
to have made all necessary arrangements for the
viewing of the fox away, and if his whippers-in
are not able to cover the whole of the ground he
will have one or two trusty emissaries who will
take care that nothing gets away unseen. If a
man thinks that the run fox has gone his way and
has reason for his belief, he may holloa once ; but
he should rarely repeat his holloa. The huntsman
in all probability has heard him the first time, and
for sundry weighty reasons he may have made up
his mind not to come to the holloa. He alone
can be the judge, as on him the chief responsibility
for the day's sport depends. Holloaing all over
the place, and holloaing wildly whenever a fox is
seen, is a sure way to spoil sport.

One word as to the holloa itself. "Gone

ON HOLLOAING 361

away,1' or " Forward away," should be quite suffi-
cient, and the huntsman's or whipper-in's scream,
musical when given properly, but frequently
horrible from the lips of the amateur, is better left
unattempted. It is on record of a famous hunts-
man who had a most musical voice himself, that he
came across an individual who was giving utter-
ance to the most horrible yells, and he straightway
told him to desist or he should ride down his
throat. There is, however, a good reason for not
using the huntsman's scream. It is a signal to
hounds. They understand what the huntsman
wants them to do from the language he employs,
and any attempt people may make to imitate
his language only tends to confuse them. So, in
one word, as little holloaing as possible, an it
please you, my masters !

CHAPTER LXV

REFERRING AGAIN TO POULTRY DAMAGES

Not very long ago I received a somewhat indig-
nant letter from a man on the subject of poultry
damages. He informed me that he had in one
year lost poultry to the value of some £j or £8,
that next year he had lost about the same value,
and that the year after his losses amounted to
about £13. He gave me the particulars of his
losses, and I am bound to admit that he did not
value his poultry excessively, though in one in-
stance I thought his estimate was rather high. He
has thoroughly convinced himself that his losses
are occasioned by foxes, and by nothing but foxes.
He resides on the borders of a couple of hunts,
and has interviewed members of both as to his
losses. Two years ago he sent in a claim for
damages to one hunt, and was told that it had
been forwarded to the Master of the other, and
not the slightest notice has been taken of it. He
says that he was fond of hunting, and liked seeing
the hounds about, but he was a poor man who
could not afford to incur such heavy losses, and
that therefore he would hereafter " trap, poison,
slay, and suffocate," to use his own words, which
were, I may add, well emphasised.

Now, assuming that my correspondent's state-

POULTRY DAMAGES 363

ments are literally correct, he has certainly a griev-
ance, and that no small one. But though he puts
down his losses temperately enough, he does not
give quite all the information that is needed, and
the conclusion at which he arrives is certainly such
a one as no sensible and unprejudiced man could
countenance. To begin with, it is certainly a
heavy loss which the man has had, year after year,
and the question naturally arises did he take suffi-
cient care of his poultry in shutting them up. It
seems rather out of the common that so many
head should have been lost year after year. Foxes,
like other carnivora, hunt for their food by night,
and though they are very wanton in their mischief
when they once get amongst a lot of fowls, they
cannot get amongst a lot of fowls when they are shut
up. I know foxes will on occasion snap up a hen
or a duck in broad daylight. I have caught them
in the act, but anything like wholesale destruction
only takes place when he gets into a hen-house.
Foxes are occasionally credited with doing wonder-
ful things. I once lost some poultry — as a matter
of fact it was stolen — and the wise policeman whom
I interviewed on the subject informed me there
were three breeds of foxes in the neighbourhood.
When I pointed out to him that the staple of the
padlock which fastened the fowl-house was drawn,
and asked him whether a fox could do that, he was
puzzled.

But to return. In most hunts — indeed, in
every hunt I know — there is a poultry fund, but
in some cases they are not too well administered,
and in the case of a man residing on the borders of
two hunts sometimes they are apt to overlook the
claims. I have known a man who lived on the

364 THE SPORT OF KINGS

borders of two hunts make no bad thing out of
his poultry damages, for he got pay from both
hunts till he was found out. The proper way, of
course, is for the hunts to divide the damages if
they are convinced of the justice of the claim, but
in this case, according to my correspondent, his
claim has never been investigated.

There is another point also which wants clear-
ing up. Did my correspondent send in his claim
at once, as soon as he had discovered his loss ? If
he did not, there is no one but himself to blame. I
need not point out that fictitious claims are some-
times sent in by unscrupulous persons. I know
of a case where a claim was made for fifty head of
poultry, which were charged at 2S. gd. each. Fifty
head of poultry had certainly been destroyed, but
most of them were chickens or ducks about the
size of a man's hand, and they had been destroyed
by the man's own ferrets, and, of course, he knew
it. So it is necessary for men to be cautious in
administering the poultry fund.

There is indeed only one way of administering a
poultry fund, and that is dividing the country into
districts, and appointing a farmer in each district
to investigate the claims. The claims should be
made as soon as the loss is incurred, and as soon
as they have been investigated and found correct
they should be paid. There should be no dallying
or delay. The putting off and shilly-shallying
policy adopted in some hunts aggravates a man
more than the loss of his poultry.

But because a Master of Hounds or secretary
of one particular hunt has lost, or overlooked, or
mislaid a letter, is that any reason why my irate
correspondent should " trap, poison, slay, and

POULTRY DAMAGES 365

suffocate " all the foxes he can come across ? 1
trow not, and I fancy he won't do that just yet,
for by his letter he seems to be a good fellow
enough. Just imagine what the world would be
like if, when a man was slighted by his letters not
being answered or attended to, he took the law
into his own hands and " trapped, poisoned, and
slew " indiscriminately. I should have had a busy
time myself of late, for in important matters some
of my correspondents thought, or seemed to think,
that I was the last person who had a right to know
anything. One person had to get tenders for a
contract for some work I had to do ; he got the
tenders and kept them carefully till he saw me,
and expected me to come to a decision on the
matter in five minutes. I did not slay his Short-
horn bull, nor trap his terrier dog, nor suffocate
his horse, nor poison his pigs, and what I said
does not matter.

My worthy correspondent, for I am sure he is
worthy, must take an opportunity of putting his
case again to the members of the hunt. Let him
speak to the Master on the subject, telling him
courteously of his losses and how they were in-
curred. Let him show that he had taken every
reasonable precaution to keep his fowls out of the
foxes' reach, and I make no doubt he will be
listened to. But whatever he does let him not
" trap, poison, slay, suffocate," for that never pays
in the long-run in a hunting country, he may take
my word.

THE END

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.

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CAKES and ALE

A Memory of many Meals ; the
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THE GREAT GAME

AND HOW IT IS PLAYED

A TREATISE ON THE TURF— FULL OF TALES

By EDWARD SPENCER

Extract from Author's Preface

' ' This does not profess to be an exhaustive history of the British Turf from
the Phoenician period. I have merely strung together a few facts and a good
many fancies connected with a sport with which I have been connected, more
or less, since that bold, bad period, 'the early sixties.' ... In the present
work the author has treated his subject as lightly as he can, and whilst
apologising for sins of omission — including merely casual reference to the mares
of the century — he can claim to have dragged in by the heels several more or
less humorous anecdotes, most of them true."

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The aim of this book is to bring Turf history somewhat "up to date."
Thanks to the works of " The Druid" (whose son Mr. Sydenham Dixon is),
those of the present generation who take an interest in our great national sport
have every opportunity of becoming fully acquainted with the deeds of the
great horses that nourished prior to "the sixties." Since that date, however,
though it cannot truthfully be written that "the rest is silence," nothing like
a compact history of the Turf has been attempted, and to many of our younger
sportsmen such giants as Achievement, Prince Charlie, Macgregor, Springfield,
St. Simon, cum multis aliis, are names, and little more than names. It has
been the author's aim to continue the tale which "The Druid" told so
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career of Mr. James Merry, with his constant changes of jockeys and trainers,
but never-ceasing sequence of good horses ; to the palmy days of Danebury,
when "the hoops" carried all before them ; to the doings of that marvellous
combination of Lord Falmouth, Matthew Dawson, and Fred Archer ; whilst,
though little attempt has been made to preserve chronological order, it is
hoped that few really good horses have been passed over. Anecdotes of the
stereotyped order have been carefully avoided, and, thanks to the kind and
cordial assistance of every owner and trainer who has been approached on the
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viously appeared in print.

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