FARMING AND FOXHUNTING 



friendly greeting should be quick upon the lips of all 

 hunting people, whether man or woman — I am not 

 sure the latter are not the worst offenders — I pre- 

 sume they find the scandal of the Hunt too engros- 

 sing, and thus miss the opportunity to greet their 

 country hosts ; hosts indeed they are for every 

 hour you spend in the hunting field, and the hunting 

 person should be ever mindful of it. 



When you come to analyse the people who hunt 

 you can put them into three classes. There are 

 those who really enjoy it, they know every fence 

 and usually how to tackle it, they watch every turn 

 of the hounds and their work on the line. They 

 can sometimes anticipate a turn, and thereby save 

 their horse a bit, they mark out well ahead how they 

 are going to get out of a field before they get into 

 it ; these are the ones who have the will to get there, 

 and generally do by hook or by crook. 



Then you have another class who come out for a 

 little exercise and a friendly chat, jog round the 

 roads and pick up hounds again at a point just to 

 hear a few features and remarks of a good hunt, 

 this enables them to say, " Yes, I was out that good 

 day from so and so." 



Then again you have what I call the friendly 

 class, the stragglers who wind their way slowly up 

 from the rear, putting the finishing touch to a 

 weakened fence. I call them friendly, they really 

 are. How often have they caught a loose horse, 

 and of course they are last through an open gate 

 and their duty is to shut it, and one has a pious 

 hope that they do. 



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