LEICESTERSHIRE 15 



knows how to play the game, maintain a respectable position 

 in the second flight, which occupies itself principally in draw- 

 ing conclusions as to its future conduct from the manner the 

 brilliant skirmishers in front negotiate the obstacles between 

 them and the hounds. To me, the two great charms of 

 hunting in Leicestershire are its freedom of action and its 

 absence of unavoidable road-tramping. In that country, if 

 we do not feel in the humour to risk our bones over leps, for 



Photo by\ 



FIG. 5- Mr- Tom Mitchell's Ganymede. 



[Jf. H. H. 



reasons best known to ourselves, we can ride to points and 

 enjoy a tittup on the grass without having to cross a single 

 fence, thanks to the large number of bridle-paths and the fact 

 that almost every gate in Leicestershire will readily open. 

 It is therefore no case, as in many other places, of riding- 

 straight, hammering along the roads, or going home ; and yet 

 every run in Leicestershire is accompanied by a vast caval- 

 cade of Macadamisers, whose want of pluck is only equalled 

 by their ignorance of hunting. The practice of riding to 



