92 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



state of affairs, but quite advisedly we repeat that it is a 

 fairly common occurrence, and therefore only one more 

 proof of how men go out hunting who have not the 

 haziest idea of what may be called the rules of the 

 game. We have heard a master who had had experi- 

 ence in three different countries, widely separated, and 

 he told us that the fields he had to manage varied 

 greatly as to their knowledge of the sport. He had 

 found in the west of England most extraordinary back- 

 ing, and a community where every one had great know- 

 ledge of hunting, and where, as far as the field were 

 concerned, he never had a moment's uneasiness from 

 the beginning to the end of the season. He told us of 

 another country, where provincial townsmen formed a 

 large part of the field, and the knowledge was neither 

 widespread nor of the right kind. " They had no wish 

 to do anything wrong," he observed, but many of them 

 were in a hopeless state of ignorance, and required to 

 be shouted at by some one in authority all day long. 

 And he had more pleasant recollections of a big country 

 within hail of London, where all the field manners were 

 perfectly orthodox, where the damage bill was small, 

 and where two hundred horsemen and women took 

 less looking after than forty or fifty in his previous 

 country. 



But in these days the better the country is from a 

 riding point of view, so much more difficult it is for the 

 master to keep order. Where there is a big field of 

 hard riders of both sexes, where there is good gallop- 

 ing ground, and where a majority of the fences are 

 innocent of wire, and are standing there to be jumped, 

 any and every master must have an infinity of trouble. 

 Many men and women there are who offend by getting 

 too far forward, and though some err in ignorance, 



