3o6 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



hunting volunteers in the Imperial Yeomanry, has 

 largely increased the popularity of the sport. People 

 who have hitherto regarded hunting as an extrava- 

 gant pastime, only to be indulged in by the wealthy 

 few, now recognise the sport as a training school for 

 light cavalry. Directly the call to arms was sounded 

 in the hunting-field there was a response which has 

 been the wonder of all foreign nations. The number 

 of volunteers was so great that the difficulty has been 

 the task of selection." 



Only Yeomanry officers can understand the diffi- 

 culties against which Lord Chesham had to contend. 

 The authorities at the War Office had never con- 

 sidered mobilisation in regard to guerilla warfare, 

 and, in spite of the remonstrances of cavalry officers, 

 refused to pay any attention to the question. But 

 Lord Chesham had long determined to do everything 

 in his power to make the Yeomanry effective. He 

 had retired from the regular forces in 1 879, when he 

 immediately devoted his attention to the Yeomanry 

 branch of the Service in Buckinghamshire, and was 

 ably seconded by his father-in-law, the late Duke of 

 Westminster, Honorary Colonel of the Earl of 

 Chester's Yeomanry Cavalry. He was a first-rate 

 horseman, and, in addition to being a first-rate man 

 to hounds, had won the Spear of India, the blue 

 ribbon of pig-stickers. His knowledge of the 

 farmers, gleaned from the hunting-field, combined 

 with his own experience of drill and stable manage- 

 ment, learnt whilst serving with the Prince of Wales' 



