yo LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



both or any pack you hunt with. Therefore, if you can 

 choose your centre, let it be in the middle of a country 

 from which you have a choice of days all fairly handy. 

 Near the kennels is almost always the best place because the 

 kennels are usually central. You cannot economise in fodder. 

 Nothing but the best is any good ; inferior quality leads to 

 mischief at once. Of course, you can hire horses, but this 

 is expensive and not always satisfactory. Before the war 

 two guineas a day used to hire a decent horse in most 

 provincial countries, but now I hear that three guineas, 

 sometimes four, is asked. A blank day would seem very 

 blank if we had to fork out four guineas for it. Also, 

 hirelings, being ridden by all and sundry, are not ideal 

 mounts, and half the pleasure of hunting is in the 

 ownership of the horse. Still, hiring is an easy way 

 to hunt ; you pay your money, go as fast as you like, stay 

 as long as you like and jump as much as you like — or the horse 

 will. And then you bang along home — they are not your 

 forelegs — hand the horse over to the owner and have no risk or 

 anxiety. I wish I could say more to the one-horse man, and 

 he not endowed with a superabundance of this world's gear ; 

 but it is rather a hopeless task, especially now, of all times. 

 If I had been writing to you twenty years ago I could have got 

 quite enthusiastic about it ; there were ways and means 

 then. Packs there were which asked no subscriptions ; 

 some rich Masters preferred to hunt their countries without 

 financial assistance from anyone. A horse could be bought 

 for a light weight for half what it costs now. Oats were 

 24s., instead of 75s. ; Hay £4, instead of £14 ; grooms came 

 to one for wages that they would be insulted with to-day. 

 Alas ! those days have gone — I fear never to return. 



With these somewhat depressing thoughts our time has 

 come to part. If you have struggled with me thus far, I 

 most sincerely thank you, and would ask you to struggle 

 through a few more sentences, and then I have done. These 

 are letters to young sportsmen, rich or poor, with ten horses 

 or one. The name of sportsman can always be acquired 

 and maintained. I somehow fancy that you will gain more 

 11 kudos " by being a good sportsman than you would by being 

 a Senior Wrangler. I never remember anyone saying to me : 



