MEMORIES OF THE SHIRES 



CHAPTER I 

 FOX-HUNTING AND MELTON 



THE war has created a gap in the history of 

 time — events will be dated before or after. 

 During the winter of 1914 a huge fissure 

 was started in the affairs of fox-hunting]which has 

 gradually grown in width. Old customs, traditions 

 and methods that were considered essential to the 

 sport have been swept into the dustbin. 



Pessimists with gloomy faces will tell you that 

 hunting is at an end, and that the fox will soon be 

 extinct ; but I am firmly convinced that the sport 

 will rise triumphant from the ashes of the past, 

 and with a brighter future will become established 

 on a broader basis. Although many good sports- 

 men have been killed, there are still plenty left, and 

 many more growing up. 



This appears to me to be the ideal moment to 

 redeem my long-delayed promise to the pubUshers 

 and to chat over the past — the five and thirty years 

 preceding the war. 



I think the love of hunting is inherent with 

 most of us in a greater or less degree, but the degrees 

 have a very wide range, and there are some in whom 

 it is almost imperceptible. Those who have that 



