146 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



enough, or fast enough, for me to keep up with the 

 first flight. 



Owing to the excellent system of being able to 

 "train" horses almost directly to the meet, one is 

 able to hunt at far greater distances from home than 

 one would over here. During my winter in Ireland I 

 used Dublin as my hunting headquarters, and was 

 able to hunt often as far as forty or fifty miles away. 

 The horses, in common with scores of others, were 

 sent on to a town near the meet by train, and in the 

 evening the cars were waiting for them to bring them 

 home again. The riders and owners, meanwhile, 

 travelled in the railway carriages behind, or preferably 

 by motor. 



On joining a hunt one should immediately send the 

 proper subscription to the hunt secretary, whose name 

 and address, as well as other valuable information 

 about hunting abroad, may be found in Bailey's Hunt- 

 ing Directory. At some meets in England, and at 

 most in Ireland, in addition to the subscription, a 

 " capping" system is in vogue — a sort of "passing the 

 hat," which takes place as one rides from the meet to 

 the covert-side. 



There is nothing prettier in the world than the sight 

 of an English meet. The riders are nearly all well 

 turned out, and before the war "scarlet" predominated. 

 The hounds are evenly marked, alike as peas in a 

 pod, and are, from a point of looks, far superior to any 

 pack of native American foxhounds. 



We have neither time nor space to go into the much- 

 discussed question as to whether or not the English 

 hound is, or ever will become, well enough adapted to 

 hunt the wilder American fox under conditions very 

 different from those prevailing in England. Men of 



