392 The Book of the Horse. 



have to attend during the year, there is not one that gives me more sincere satisfaction 

 than that at which we are present this evening. I have a feehng that I am not here 

 among strangers ; on the contrary, among friends. Many of tlie faces I see around me to- 

 night I have known from my earhest childhood. During the time my father kept the harriers 

 at Windsor, I used as a boy to hunt with them. After my father's death I kept them for a 

 certain time. I have since had the pleasure of frequently hunting with the stag-hounds. I 

 hope to meet you in the hunting-field for many years to come. Hunting brings all classes 

 together ; everybody in the hunting-field feels upon an equality. I hope that hunting — whether 

 fox-hunting, stag-hunting, or hare-hunting — may long continue to flourish in this country. I 

 trust that for many years to come we shall ride together over the same fields and the same 

 fences ; that if we now and then have the same falls, it will only be to get up again and 

 follow the sport with, if possible, greater zest than ever. I may take this occasion to say that the 

 Princess of Wales is as keen a sportswoman as I am a sportsman." 



Not so are the customs of the stag-hunts, fox-hunts, and boar-hunts of France and 

 Germany, where the sport shown is often excellent, but where a stranger would no more 

 think of intruding, however profound his knowledge of the sport, however admirable his 

 horse and equipments, than into a pheasant-shooting battue in Norfolk or Suff"olk. 



The aristocratic quality of fox-hunting is shown by the position conceded to the master of 

 a county pack, which socially is only second to the Lord Lieutenant. 



But in this country there are hunts and hunting-fields suited to all purses and all ages. 

 Packs, consisting of a few couples of merry harriers or beagles for hunting hares or Welsh 

 foxes, are frequently kept up by the farmers and professional men of a rural district, at an 

 expense not exceeding the cost of one horse for one season in Leicestershire or Northamp- 

 tonshire. In tire Midlands the man who cares about appearances, and desires to rank, if 

 not to ride, with the first flight, must have at least six or eight well-bred, full-sized horses 

 of high class, with grooms, and carriages, and other expenses in proportion, although he may 

 never be seen out of a lane or bridle road after the hounds have commenced running in 

 earnest ; whilst in a country of small enclosures and frequent coverts, with a two or three 

 day a week pack of fox-hounds, half the number of horses, of a fourth the value, will do all 

 that a reasonable man can require. Li the New Forest, the pheasant coverts of Kent and 

 Sussex, or the high banks and deep valleys of Devonshire, a clever cob will afford more 

 sport than a sixteen-hand blood Yorkshire hunter. As for the horses required with harriers 

 and beagles in England and Wales, the majority of the field are generally mounted on 

 their ordinary hacks and roadsters. In hunting the pleasure is by no means in proportion 

 to the cost ; and it is probable that as regards sport — not hard riding— the enthusiastic 

 Welshman or Devonian on his pony has more enjoyment than many owners of perfect 

 studs in flying countries. 



As a matter of course, the man who makes hunting the occupation of his life, who means 

 to hunt every day that hounds can run and horses stand on their feet, will, if he is young, 

 strong, and brave, and can afford it, prefer a grass country, big fields, big fences, big horses, 

 a great deal of galloping, and as little cold hunting as possible ; and he may have all this 

 far from the fashionable mobs of the Midlands or mobs of any kind. But the class to 

 whom these pages are particularly addressed are those who never have hunted, and only 

 think of hunting because, having at least one horse and being able to ride, they find them- 

 selves near a pack of hounds of some kind, with leisure enough to enjoy the sport once or 

 several times a week. 



