PREFACE 



Blessed he the thoughts and recollections 

 That drive the ills and cares of life away. 

 While they hriiig again serene reflections 

 Of all the joys we had along the way. 



/^ROSS Country with Horse and Hound" has proved a 

 ^-^ hajDpy disappointment, especially to the author. 



There being but few hunt clubs in America, it was argued 

 that there were comparatively few who were personally 

 interested in cross country riding to hounds; it was therefore 

 ^vith some misgivings that the book was brought to light. 

 The effort, however, has received such hearty endorsement 

 from the reading public in general, and has had such pleasant 

 things said about it by the hunting fraternity in particular, 

 both in England and America, that the writing of this second 

 work has become doubly enjoyable. It may be said to have 

 been undertaken in response to an encore. 



Next to a cross country ride itself, comes the pleasure of 

 living it over again with whoever has the ear for hearing it, and 

 an imagination keen enough to supply what neither pen nor 

 pencil is able to produce. 



There seems to be born in every man a taste for country 

 life and in most men a love for the chase. We probably 

 inherit our longing for the fields from our mother Eve, whose 

 desire to return to the garden must have been very great, 

 so great in fact, that the world will never stand long enough 

 to see it eradicated from the system of her descendants. 

 It is from the "old man" perhaps, who was obliged to hunt 

 for a living after losing his farm, that we inherit a desire for 



