274 HUNTING MISERIES: 



yesterday, and it seems to us as we advance that we 

 are getting into even a harder country than we have 

 left behind, and we reach the meet just as the Master's 

 motor-car overtakes us, to find that though many 

 besides ourselves have not cared to risk losing a day 

 in such a very uncertain season, they are very much 

 divided in opinion as to the advisability of hunting. 

 That, of course, can only be decided by the M.F.H. 

 himself. On his shoulders rests the whole responsi- 

 bility, and it is no slight one. It matters, after all, 

 very little to the field. 



If hounds do not come to a meet there are always 

 some captious individuals ready to declare that it was 

 " quite fit to hunt " where they came from, or that a 

 neighbouring pack were out. Of course, the toes of 

 the hounds are not taken into consideration ; nor, what 

 is more important still, the limbs and necks of the 

 Hunt servants. Captain Spurrier may go out on one 

 of these doubtful days as full of ride as ever. And 

 when hounds find and go away, he may also "get away 

 on their backs " as usual ; but when he jumps into a 

 field of short grass and his horse's legs seem suddenly 

 to go all ways at once, and this pleasing performance 

 is repeated at the next fence, he opines that " it's not 

 good enough" and makes for the King's highway. It 

 is not so with the servants : their position is very 

 different. 



It is not meet, perhaps, for a hunting man to prate 

 of the danger of the Hunt servants' calling, for the 

 follower of hounds shares the dangers of the chase 

 with the professional ; and yet I may be allowed to 

 point out that the risks are not quite the same, and 



