148 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



hunt, or group of hunts, and if possible stick to the 

 place of their choice. A man who has hunted early in 

 life in a grass country rarely takes kindly to plough, 

 and those who have been accustomed to big woodlands 

 and a hilly country are seldom at home in a flat 

 low-lying district, even if they find the foxes run 

 straighter and the sport superior. The liking or dis- 

 liking of a hunting country is in fact greatly a question 

 of early habits and of environment, and it is lucky that 

 this is so, for if all hunting people who could afford it 

 went to what are considered to be the best gallop- 

 ing grounds there would be ridiculous overcrowding 

 in certain places, and very meagre support for such 

 countries as were not highly favoured from a riding 

 point of view. 



As it is the best riding countries are sometimes far 

 too crowded because of the great number of visitors, 

 while some of the provincial hunts suffer because 

 certain of the residents go elsewhere to hunt. But 

 there is probably less of this than there used to be 

 a few years ago, firstly because people tire of hunting 

 in a great crowd, and secondly because so many of 

 the provincial packs have been so greatly improved 

 that the sport they show is good enough to keep people 

 at home. We are not going to urge that there has 

 been an all-round improvement in sport all over the 

 country, for such is most certainly not the case. 

 Hounds doubtless are faster than they used to be, and 

 horses are on the whole better, but mange, barbed 

 wire, increase of population, new railways, excessive 

 game preservation, and a dozen minor matters have 

 had considerable effect upon the hunting in nine 

 countries out of ten, and it is because the conditions 

 are more equal than they used to be that the land- 



