THE FIELD loi 



establishments are a godsend to any hunt, and one can 

 only wish that there were more of them scattered about 

 the country. When a whole family are enthusiastic 

 the amount of good they do in their own district is 

 simply enormous. Their enthusiasm infects their 

 neighbours, and many who are naturally inclined to be 

 half-hearted about hunting matters are brought to take 

 great interest, not only in the actual hunting, but in 

 the affairs of the hunt, and to help it by all the means 

 that lie in their power. 



It is now generally understood that individual mem- 

 bers of a family should subscribe to hounds after they 

 have attained what are perhaps erroneously called 

 years of discretion, and it is also generally agreed that 

 ladies who hunt should subscribe almost as if they 

 were men. With all due courtesy to the fair sex, it 

 may be pointed out that in earlier days when hunting 

 women were few and far between, and when each hunt 

 contained only some two or three regular lady followers, 

 their subscription was hardly looked for, though as a 

 matter of fact a majority of those ladies who hunted regu- 

 larly did subscribe. But the times have changed, and 

 now there are often as many women as men to be seen 

 during the early part of each hunting day, and if some 

 of them go home early, the hard-bitten ones remain 

 to the end of the proceedings. Many women have 

 attendant grooms, too, and a great number of second 

 horses (we are not writing of the Shires in particular, 

 but of hunting generally), so that they form no small 

 part of the field. 



But in some countries ladies expect that their grooms 

 shall be allowed to follow them wherever they go, and 

 where the master is not disposed to object the custom 

 is very regularly carried out. Some of these ladies' 



