CHAPTER NINE. 



THE FIELD. 



THE individuals, members or otherwise of a hunt, 

 who come out to see the sport, and constitute 

 what is called the field, have no direct responsi- 

 bility in the hunting or management of the hounds, but 

 the successful pursuit of foxes and their own fun depends 

 very largely on how they behave. For this reason there 

 seems ample excuse to introduce the subject of mere 

 onlookers into this series of articles, which have hitherto 

 been confined to technical hunting matters. 



Man is a gregarious animal, we are told, and certainly 

 when gathered in any number he frequently loses indi- 

 viduality and becomes a blind follower of the mad 

 impulses that control a crowd's actions. Some sort of 

 telepathy or thought transfer flashes from mind to mind, 

 and ordinary reasonable beings are suddenly infected 

 with mob fever. This must be the explanation of those 

 occasions when, collectively, a field acts in a wild and 

 disorderly manner, and which otherwise each separately 

 would condemn. More often than not the first flight 

 men and hard riders are responsible for these outbreaks, 

 so that in a natural desire to get forward they should 

 remember to set a good example to those behind, and 

 control their own inchnations. 



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