VARIETY IN HUNTING COUNTRIES 199 



Men certainly hunt from "mixed motives," and the 

 great Squire of Bramham, above mentioned, delighted 

 in the reply of one of his followers, a visitor who took 

 up his hunting quarters within the confines of the 

 Hunt, to an inquirer who asked why on earth he 

 didn't " go to the grass." " I don't eat grass," was the 

 answer, " and I prefer the hospitalities of the plough. 

 The man whose idea of fox-hunting is simply riding 

 fast over a country is never the one to "prefer the 

 , hospitalities of the plough," and if an honest notion 

 of his ideal sport could be obtained it would probably 

 be found to be something of this sort : A very level, 

 sound, grass country of large enclosures, none less than 

 twenty acres, divided by stiff fences, with the take- 

 off firm and good and the landing smooth and capable 

 of being jumped by a horse in his stride ; a blazing 

 scent and no check till the "beastly crowd" is well 

 shaken off, and then only of sufficient duration to 

 " give a horse his puff " ; time limit, thirty-five 

 minutes at most, preferably ten minutes less, for if 

 the pace is really " top-hole," and the fences " pretty 

 useful," it gets to " second-horse time " about then. 



A delightful programme, no doubt ; but, fortunately, 

 some of us say fox-hunting at its best is not like the 

 pictures we see in the print-shop windows, and if the 

 above were to be the unvarying fare served out to 

 the true fox-hunter, surfeit would very soon over- 

 take him, and he would become horribly bored and 

 disgusted. He would miss what are to him the real 

 joys of the chase— the endless diversities of the 

 pastime, the beautiful working of the hounds, and 

 their wonderful instinct called forth by difficulties 



