4 NOTES FOR IIUNTIXG-MEI^ 



Apart from the smaller expenditure involved, 

 another great advantage of the ' provinces ' is the 

 comparative smallness of the fields, enabling a 

 3^oung sportsman to see more of the hunting than 

 he can possibl}^ do in a Midland crowd. There, 

 amid those big black fences, he is likely to be too 

 much taken up with the how and where he is to 

 negotiate them, to be able to give the proper 

 amount of attention to the hounds ; unless, indeed, 

 he is more superbly mounted than ingenuous youth 

 generally is at starting ; in which case, however, 

 instead of watching hounds, he will most probably 

 be over-riding them. 



The advantages of the shires, which, with me, 

 though a poor man, have outweighed all objections, 

 I will try to sum up briefly. 



I think, looking at the matter from a somewhat 

 mercenary point of view, they give you the best 

 value for your money, especially if you have to do 

 as I had for many years, train for a single day's 

 hunting tv/ice or three times in the week, before 

 long leave commenced. I tried Essex, a most 

 sporting provincial country, and I tried Leicester- 

 shire, and I found that, on any given day, I was 

 lYiore certain of sport in the latter. On a bad 

 scenting day on the plough (good scenting days are 

 the exception anywhere) one spent it in walking 

 after a fox over a not too engaging country. It 



