SHUTTING GATES. 391 



an accident. If a man opens a gate by himself or is the 

 last person to go through it, he should be careful to perform 

 the important duty of shutting it ; because omission to do 

 so is liable to entail the disastrous result of letting stock 

 loose over the country, and consequently of exciting farmers 

 to oppose hunting. Pulling up during a run and getting off 

 to help a person who has had a bad fall, or catching a loose 



Fig. 242. Ridge and furrow. 



horse for a " field officer," are acts of generosity which are 

 beyond the limits of conventional politeness. 



In the Shires, there is so often only one practicable place in 

 stiff fences which form a boundary of large fields, that a 

 person who attempts the comparatively easy spot and fails, is 

 expected to give way to the next comer who is desirous of 

 trying his luck. The fact of there being other loop-holes of 

 deliverance would of course modify matters. In some provin- 

 cial countries, in which the fences are not as big as those of 

 Leicestershire, anyone who can secure a position in front of an 

 easy place, is supposed to have taken a lease of it. 



