336 



LEAVES FROM A HUNTINCx DIARV 



Wilson, Mr. Horner, Mr. Heinemann, Mr. Tilling; and later 

 on, but too late for the run, the three Miss Buxtons. I really 

 don't think there was anyone else — under forty, if yoii II count 

 thcni. Just the number we are always sighino- for, but not the 

 number we really want, or we should migrate to Devonshire. 



Depend upon it, hunting folk are very gregarious, and a 

 regular field of forty would offer too little contrast, too little 

 shade and colour, too little variety. The cut-and-thrust brigade 

 would have no fun cutting down, nor being hung up by, their 

 best pals every day. The ddmtichds of coffee- housing would 

 grow wearisomely monotonous in their chatter to their small 

 circle, and the heavy gap-riding, or happy back-seat contingent. 





>^y 



'f 



Sir Charles Smith's Coverts 



would find no gaps to ride through — no clue to lead them on 

 to the end of a straight gallop. No, the happy medium is 

 300 subscribers, and forty of them out occasionally and 100 

 to 120 regularly. No grumbling at the small field to-day. 

 Where were the rest of our Three Hundred ? Saving them- 

 selves for Monday and W^ednesday ! Vain hope ; for as I 

 write the snow is blotting out the first, and looks like erasing 

 the rest of the hunting days of the week. 



I suppose we had covered seven or eight miles of country 

 by the time we arrived at Sir Charles Smith's coverts, and 



