246 FOX-HUNTING TYPES 



who seems to do so much to further the hilarity of 

 the proceedings, and would not in the least mind 

 seeing with his hounds a few more of his kind. 



I do not lay claim to any great knowledge of the 

 tactics and strategy employed by the force of highway 

 fox-hunters which I have very recently joined. I am 

 but a humble " recruity " striving to learn, but appalled 

 at present by the difficulties which present themselves 

 to the road-riding brigade. Of the dangers, I may 

 have something to say later on. 



The difficulties, briefly stated, are embodied in the 

 effort to see something of the hounds in chase, and 

 of their followers, by sticking to His Majesty's highway, 

 and such lanes or " boreens," as they say over here, 

 without doing more in the way of jumping than to 

 scramble through or over a line of gaps which lead 

 from one road to another. Also the difficulties of 

 avoiding harm by heading foxes, getting in front of 

 hounds, or carrying them on beyond the line if they 

 are running in an adjacent field, by the terrible 

 clatter raised by the hoofs of our horses. 



Readers will perhaps pardon an egotistical vein 

 that may appear in this brief record of recent ex- 

 periences and the reflections to which they give rise. 

 I thought there was something a little like a frown 

 on the good-natured face of my medical attendant as 

 he " spotted " me at a meet last week — my first 

 appearance after a longish spell on the sick list — 

 and when he enjoined me to " dodge about the roads 

 and not to do too much," I meekly resolved to obey, 

 at all events for so long as the hard-riding medico 



