6 HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



give one the feeling of riding in a steeplechase. 

 At the end of the day they are discussing which 

 man's horse was first over certain obstacles, and 

 the rest of the field of natives are as nothing to 

 them. I never felt this more strongly than I 

 did one day when I was out with the Woolwich 

 drag. The hairbreadth escapes of that day will 

 never be obhterated from my memory. The 

 run was lovely if one could have enjoyed it 

 alone, but the feeling of horses' breath on your 

 face at each fence was a nightmare. Well, to 

 go back to the hunting people. There is the 

 man who has good horses — but one never has a 

 chance of knowing if they are any use for the 

 simple reason that he never rides at all. 



Next come the doctors, don't they just 

 go when hounds run, riding screws of horses, 

 but such jumpers. I have in my mind one man 

 in particular, he had the advantage of having 

 a knacker for his neighbour, and many a horse 

 after being condemned has carried him to the 

 front for several seasons. ;^io was a very long 

 price for him to give. 



When, years ago, I used to drive with my 

 father to the Meet, we always looked out for the 

 doctor in his surgery, examining patients' 

 tongues, wearing his hunting boots ready to 

 start. How the mighty have fallen. The 

 doctor rides no more and visits his patients in a 

 motor car. 



Perhaps I should have put the ladies first. 

 May I say it, they generally are first in a run. 

 To-day we have some sixty fair ones, riding well 

 up in front on superb hunters that never put a 



