THE COUNTRY IN WHICH TO HUNT 5 



must be a very bad scenting day on the grass, 

 during which you do not get at least one merry ten 

 minutes over a glorious country, and the horses 

 and hounds, as a sight alone, are worth the 

 journey to see. Then, again, more sport is here 

 generally compressed into the day, less time being 

 spent going from covert to covert — a consideration 

 for the man who has come some distance for his 

 fun. 



I remember once training to a provincial pack 

 (not in Essex). We had a fairish run over a poor 

 country, and killed our fox about 2 p.m. The 

 master then made a little speech, saying that we 

 had had a good day's sport, that hounds were a 

 long way from kennel, 80 that it was not worth 

 while drawing again ; v\dth which he and his pack 

 jogged off to their teas. It reminded me forcibly 

 of the ' Life of a Foxhound,' where someone asked 

 the Squire, after a forty minutes' hunt, at the end 

 of which they had drowned their fox, if he would 

 not try for another, as it was early. ' No,' replied 

 the master, shaking his head, ' we are fifteen 

 miles from kennel, the hounds have had a good 

 deal of fatiguing work in covert, and are satisfied 

 with a novel but glorious finish. I shall not 

 run the risk of tiring them more, perhaps for 

 nothing, and doing away with that spirit which I 

 hope the sport of the day has given to everyone 



