Fox-hunting 23 



countries. Unhesitatingly, I say that I 

 would rather hunt a donkey on the Thames 

 Embankment than not hunt at all ; but at 

 the same time, I am equally sure that to 

 obtain a good country it is worth taking 

 any amount of extra trouble, rather than, 

 by pursuing the dolce far niente method, to 

 hunt in a bad one. And contrasting good 

 and bad countries brings me to the con- 

 sideration of a rather curious thing — the 

 facility with which a horse, taken out of 

 such countries as Kent and Surrey, for 

 example, will adapt himself to even Nor- 

 thamptonshire in its most strongly fenced 

 parts. A good horse simply loves hunting, 

 and, ridden freely, will do his best to see 

 where hounds are going, be the change in 

 ground never so great. I have seen more 

 than one instance of an animal which has 

 been hunting in the worst parts of Kent, 

 where, many a day, you never even see a 

 fence worth calling a jump, transferred to 

 the Grafton and the Pytchley country, facing 

 boldly the big fences there, and with the 



