CHAPTER VIII. 



CUB-HUNTING AND THE COMMENCEMENT 

 OF THE SEASON 



DURING the last decade of the century the 

 practice of advertising the cub-hunting fixtures 

 has been adopted in many hunting countries. I 

 cannot say that this new departure is altogether 

 pleasing to old-fashioned hunting men, but as it 

 has evidently come to stay we must make the best 

 of it. Not that I think that the objections to the 

 practice are very weighty, for only the keenest of 

 the keen will get up in the middle of the night in 

 order to potter about and watch hounds being taught 

 not to riot. The hard-riding contingent vote cub- 

 hunting to be tame sport, and doubtless from their 

 standpoint they are right. Their point of view is 

 to regard as good sport a fast gallop with lots of 

 jumping. In their opinion the fox and the hounds 

 are mere accessories, and as they never trouble to 

 learn the orthodoxy of fox-hunting it is not to be 

 expected that they should take any interest in the 

 preliminaries of the legitimate fox-hunting season. 

 In one respect this apathy is a thing for which we 



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