MODERN FOX-HUNTING 23 



In August 1900 the Nikolaievsky Hunting College, 

 named after the Grand Duke Nikolas Nikolaievich, 

 Inspector-General of Cavalry in the province of Wilna, 

 erected on the estates of Count Pozezdziecki (English, 

 Postawy), sixty versts from Swiencany, was officially 

 consecrated. The date is interesting, because it was 

 then that the Boer horsemanship had become to be 

 recognised as an important factor in guerilla warfare. 

 The Wilna Hunting College was erected in three inonths. 

 Russian diplomacy may be dilatory according to the 

 wishes of the Russian diplomatists, but Duke Nikolas 

 was not the man to put up with red tape. The con- 

 struction of the college can be described in a very few 

 words. It is a handsome three-storey building, con- 

 taining one hundred rooms for officers, with dining- 

 rooms and the usual officers' recreation-rooms. 

 Adjoining are stables for three hundred horses, bar- 

 rack accommodation, and kennels, in which there were 

 in 1902 seventy-five couples of hounds, exclusive of 

 harriers and greyhounds. There is also a reserve or 

 breeding-ground for deer, which were originally 

 brought from the Imperial preserves at Gachina. The 

 system of conducting the sport, or the lessons in 

 horsemanship, is as follows : There are both drag- 

 hunts and stag-hunts. For the former the distance is 

 never under fifteen versts, or nine and three-quarter 

 miles, over broken country with wide ditches and high 

 fences ; and the distance is generally covered in about 

 thirty-five minutes. The average distance for a stag- 

 hunt is from ten to twelve miles. Also, in connection 

 with the Hunting College, there is a Racing Society. 



