RIDING AFTER HOUNDS 227 



day when hounds crossed it to my great surprise 

 he called to me by name, threw open the gate, 

 said that was the nearest way, and that all the 

 wire was down. I was so astounded that I could 

 almost have been ' knocked down with a feather.' 

 Mentioning it to a friend as we were riding home 

 I expressed my astonishment and he told me that 

 it was the result of an accident. There was some 

 public matter in which the owner's interests were 

 affected and at a meeting my friend and other 

 two or three hunting men, seeing an injustice 

 was likely to be done, took up the case warmly 

 and carried his point for him. After the business 

 was settled the man came to my friend, said he 

 had no idea hunting men were like that and he 

 would always be glad to see hounds on his place. 

 On another occasion a few friendly words about 

 a nice lot of lambs a small farmer was driving 

 home led to the wire being taken down on a 

 neighbour's farm. The man who had bought 

 the lambs was the only one who had any influence 

 with the neighbour, a somewhat surly man, whose 

 bark was a good deal worse than his bite. An- 

 other case, in which a lot of wire came down and 

 in which hunting men met with a cordial greeting 

 instead of cold looks, was the result of an accident. 

 A hunting man happened to discover quite acci- 

 dentally that the man who had all the wire up 

 and he had a common interest, and meeting him 

 one day he spoke of this interest rather warmly. 

 The result was as I have already stated. If 

 hunting men would try to get to know their 



