136 ECHOES OF SPORT 



jumping, but there is another and in some 

 ways a wilder kind of which I have, thanks 

 again to the same source, had a delightful 

 though short experience. 



The New Forest is almost Irish in its love 

 of sport. You can hunt something there six 

 days of the week for a good many months of 

 the year, but the deer hunting is of all the most 

 exciting and fascinating. The depth of the 

 woods, the rush of galloping hoofs down the 

 splendid rides, the break into the open, the 

 sense of pursuing an animal wild and free as 

 the deer in his native haunt, combine to give 

 an exhilaration and raciness in the blood that 

 is not felt to such an extent in lawn-like and 

 confined countries. There may be no jump- 

 ing in the New Forest, but there is much to 

 compensate instead. The risk of a broken 

 neck down a rabbit-hole, a roll in a bog, a 

 knocked head or foot against a tree, the un- 

 certainty of galloping acrossheather and moor- 

 land, afford ample pinches of " danger salt." 



One ride stands out foremost, and though 

 descriptions of runs are boring except to those 



