HUNTING LOCALITIES 157 



how large the crowd may be, invariably shoot to the 

 front immediately hounds begin to run, but these men 

 and women are gifted with a certain knack, and not 

 once in a dozen times are they stopped from taking 

 their customary places at the beginning of a run. 



Strangers who visit the Shires in these days must 

 not only be good men to hounds, but must be quick to 

 make up their minds, or they will indubitably be left. 

 Just at the moment, however, we are not discussing 

 hunting from a riding point of view, and to get back 

 to the subject in hand, the Shires are doubtless the 

 best place for what may be called the unattached hunt- 

 ing folk whose social position is very good. By un- 

 attached in this connection we mean those well-to-do 

 hunting men and women who have no location or ties 

 in any provincial country, but are at liberty to hunt 

 where they like. Such men and women can probably 

 get bigger value for their money in the crack hunts of 

 the Midlands than they can elsewhere, but they must 

 be prepared to pay at a fairly high rate for their sport. 

 High-class hunters, well bred, well conditioned, and 

 gifted with stamina are an absolute necessity for 

 ninety-nine men out of a hundred in the Shires. 

 There is, of course, the odd man in a hundred and 

 the odd woman in a thousand who can get to the front 

 on horses which no one else can ride, and which can 

 probably be bought for ^50 or less. But because one 

 man is at home on a horse which the average hunting 

 man cannot ride with comfort, it does not follow that 

 the latter can buy anything fit to live with hounds over 

 a galloping country at the same price, and as a matter 

 of fact the rank and file of a Leicestershire field must 

 either be well mounted, or be content to ride half a 

 mile or more behind hounds all day. 



