330 HUNTING, ANCIENT AND MODERN 



but I like to meet people who have come out to enjoy 

 a fox-hunt, and not to show themselves and their 

 clothes. I like to hear a good story, too ; but don't 

 want it told to me just as hounds have found their 

 fox, or just when they have checked, which was the 

 time chosen to inflict a yarn upon me the last day 

 I was out. But my ideal field is composed of just about 

 a hundred souls, all, except the grooms, bent on seeing 

 as much of the hunt as they can, each in the manner to 

 which he is best accustomed. That number is, I think, 

 small enough for comfort, but large enough to please 

 the eye sufficiently. I'm afraid I take too much pleasure 

 in the humours of the chase to come up to your notion 

 of the ' severe order of sportsman,' and, great nuisance 

 as a crowd is, the fun one sees when these mobs are 

 out is, to me, some very slight compensation for the 

 harm they do." 



" Well ! " replied my companion, " one certainly does 

 see some very strange creatures on a big day, and 

 hear a good many comical things said, and it is rather 

 a relief to have a little room in the afternoon when 

 they have cut away to catch their specials. But, you 

 know, you could never carry on hunting if a lot more 

 folk didn't hunt nowadays than used to come out. 

 Poultry claims, damages, and wire funds have to be 

 reckoned with everywhere, and expenses all round 

 have increased tremendously." 



" That's true enough," was my answer, *' but remem- 

 ber that where we hear of most complaints in England 

 the expenses have been increased by these very crowds 

 and their behaviour. No ; looking at it from a social 

 point of view, I am disposed to think that things were 



