MODERN FOX-HUNTING 9 



" Must be prepared to spend three thousand pounds 

 per annum on the Hunt?" At all events, the candi- 

 date for M.F.H. honours would know what he was 

 expected to pay for the honour. There are certain 

 followers of hounds who wish that the provincial 

 Hunt, to which they subscribe, should be conducted 

 on the same lines as a fashionable Hunt in the Shires. 

 I have always regarded these men as " jackdaws 

 dressed in peacocks' feathers." If they are dissatisfied 

 with the modest methods by which their local Hunt 

 is conducted, why do they not emigrate into a fashion- 

 able country ? 



" I was staying in Leicestershire last week. By 

 Jove ! They do the thing in style there ! " I once 

 heard an impertinent novice say to an old member of 

 a provincial Hunt. " Then why the devil didn't you 

 stay there ? " was the retort. I was interested to know 

 what were the opinions of this novice in regard to 

 style, but I could only gather that his chief impres- 

 sion was that the field resembled a battalion of pink 

 coats. Apparently he had not noticed the hounds or 

 the horses on which the Hunt servants were mounted, 

 though he had at his fingers'-ends a catalogue of men 

 and ladies who were out, with handles to their names, 

 which he had probably learnt by heart from a report 

 in the local paper. I have no doubt that this young 

 man still boasts of his Leicestershire experiences in 

 the smoking-room of the local club ; but, before he 

 boasts, he should discover if a Leicestershire man 

 happens to be in the room. I well remember lunching 

 at a certain county club as a guest, the only other 



