THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 85 



the Shires and their immediate neighbourhood the 

 conditions are constantly changing, while "fields" 

 come and go much more frequently than they did. 

 And this applies, but perhaps in a smaller degree, to 

 all the good and fair provincial countries where the 

 number of people hunting has increased even more 

 than it has in the Midlands. In the earlier days of 

 the sport hunting was, to a very great extent, confined 

 to men and women who spent all their lives in the 

 country, to country-bred people, and to a few en- 

 thusiasts, like Mr. Jorrocks, who, though town bred, 

 were so liberally endowed with the bump of '* foxhunti- 

 tiveness " that they could not be kept from it. Now 

 the average hunting field is composed of men and 

 women, of whom perhaps almost a majority have 

 taken to the sport long after years of discretion have 

 been reached, while it is only a minority — and often 

 a small one — that were bred up to hunting, and have 

 been thoroughly intimate with all its peculiarities since 

 the days of their childhood. 



Not so long ago nine hunting men out of ten, and 

 nearly all the women who hunted had done so 

 almost from childhood. Many of them had begun 

 as soon as they were old enough to sit on a pony, 

 and throughout their boyhood had seen hounds 

 regularly enough at holiday times. It stood to 

 reason, then, that they had during youth gained a 

 certain amount of knowledge as to the sport itself, and 

 also as to the manner in which it ought to be conducted. 

 The average field when increased was increased by 

 those who were not novices, but who had served an 

 apprenticeship, and the average master was, as a rule, 

 in no wise troubled when each new season brought a 

 few recruits to the ranks of the regular supporters. 



