SCENES 

 FROM THE SADDLE. 



THE physical pleasure arising from being on horseback and 

 being in control of the partnership is probably the most 

 general reason for devotion to hunting. To the huntsman it is 

 the performances of his hounds individually. For a few it 

 partakes of a form of society function, but this feature can only 

 occur with the ultra-fashionable packs and is entirely absent 

 from the smaller hunts, where the attraction is hunting and 

 little else besides. 



He who lives in a natural hunting district and through 

 years of association knows every farm and byeway for miles 

 round, has bred and broken his hunters to the third and fourth 

 generation, such an one, if he is engrossed in business as his 

 daily occupation, is probably he who gets at least as much 

 satisfaction out of it as any one, and that is saying a great deal. 

 A generalisation truly, but one based on forty years' experience. 

 These few notes have been put together in appreciation of, and 

 as a very brief expression of, the pleasures, mental and bodily, 

 of forty seasons, and with a feeling that it may prove to be a 

 reference to a national institution which may shortly cease to 

 find a place. 



There are comparatively many young women who hunt, 

 but within the writer's experience hardly any young men. The 

 war took a heavy toll, and the necessity of close application to 

 professions or business under the present conditions of living 

 has taken most of the rest. Of the men who hunt, the great 

 majority of those who carry the burden of the expense are 

 middle-aged or elderly, and although their activities will 

 eventually be curtailed by age, taxation appears to be at the 

 moment the more immediate foe to fox-hunting. 



