Fox-hunting Past and Present 



when we go to the drag-hunt. A good man 

 to draghounds does not always shine with fox- 

 hounds. 



Men not over imbued with keenness often lose 

 their hardness in early middle life, and become 

 quite modest performers. There have also been 

 distinguished hunting-men, born huntsmen, who 

 never enjoyed a reputation for hard riding, and 

 well up in venery. Such an one was Peter 

 Beckford, whose immortal treatise on hunting, 

 though over a century old, is eminently useful 

 to-day. In his day there were more men who 

 hunted for the sake of hunting than now. There 

 were fewer ''visitors." The fields were all made 

 up of resident country gentlemen. While to some 

 it is hunting and others riding, there are yet 

 many who seem almost equally at home in both 

 departments. As to overriding the pack, there 

 is far too much of it in many countries to-day. 

 Moreover, fields are larger nearly everywhere now 

 than they were a generation ago. The master 

 may be so easy-going that his good-nature is 

 taken advantage of, or owing to the size of the 

 field it is impossible for him to be everywhere 

 to keep order. Discipline is essential to every 

 hunting-field, though recruits to the sport know 

 not its etiquette. It is doubtless ambition that 

 is at the bottom of most of the overriding. The 



novice is unconscious that in following So-and-so 



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