54 



to the sport amidst a field of three hundred. The fact 

 that they are expert and competent horsemen may assist 

 them in keeping near hounds, but it will not prevent 

 them spoiling runs for others as well as themselves, and 

 generally being nuisances to the hunt officials. The few 

 hints jotted down in this article are meant for those with 

 little experience of the hunting field and in the hope they 

 may assist in avoiding mistakes. The man who rashly 

 plunges into the vortex of a grass country without any 

 previous knowledge of hunting has many things to learn, 

 but if he will only keep eyes and ears open, with the 

 fixed determination to watch hounds and take an intelli- 

 gent interest in what they are doing, he should soon 

 improve. The mis^ke which the novice usually makes 

 is in thinking that the chief aim to obtain the pleasures of 

 the chase is to gallop fast and jump fences, and in thus 

 doing compete against other hard riders. If they would 

 only realise that watching hounds and their methods of 

 hunting a fox is an absorbing study in itself, they would 

 reap far greater enjoyment out of a day's sport. 

 Skimming over fences in a quick gallop on the back of a 

 good horse will provide thrills that nothing else on earth 

 can equal, but except for a few minutes the sensation 

 loses more than half its flavour unless the pack can be 

 seen and heard. 



To enjoy the fullest excitement of a hunt a man should 

 identify himself with the aims of hounds and huntsman — 

 the ultimate capture of the fox. Let him forget the 

 fences, the pace, the other men competing, and concen- 

 trate on what the fox is doing or likely to do. It matters 

 not that he ^vill be more often wrong than right in his 

 surmises, but it wiU increase his interest in the result. 

 Like many other things in this fife, more satisfaction is 

 gained out of hunting by submerging the ego and extending 



