48 PRACTICAL HINTS FOR HUNTING NOVICES. 



Quorn on Monday, and the overriding on both days 

 was enough to try the patience of Job, and, indeed, one 

 of those particular days was very severely commented 

 on by a Field correspondent at the end of the 

 week. 



On the Saturday of the same week I hunted with what 

 may be called almost a metropolitan pack — the Burstow, 

 to wit. It was a popular meet, and though the field 

 was small in comparison with what I had seen a few 

 days before, there were something like one hundred 

 and twenty horsemen and women all riding in a cramped 

 country of small enclosures. Hounds found and went 

 away, and about the third field was young wheat. 

 Someone shouted " Ware wheat ! " and as soon as they 

 jumped the fence every man and woman turned down 

 the headland, and rode in single file halfway round the 

 field before they jumped out again. I was much im- 

 pressed with the occurrence, and, though some of the 

 southern hunts may have been cockney fied when Surtees 

 made such sport of the Old Surrey, some seventy years 

 ago, I am quite certain that a modern field of hunting 

 men and women who are practically Londoners know how 

 to behave when hunting far better than the fields of 

 some of the ultra fashionable packs. The novice, then, 

 whether he intends to hunt with a provincial pack or 

 aspires to the Shires, should first of all go to a small 

 but sporting country, and learn all that he can. Careful 

 study of " Baily's Hunting Directory " will afford him 

 many particulars of the various countries. It will 

 show him where they are situated, which are the nearest 

 towns, and of what nature and size the country is, 

 and what sort of horse is suitable for it. He can then 



