WHERE TO HUNT. 51 



extent made up by Londoners. And in these metro- 

 politan hunts there is every variety of country except 

 grass. Grass there is in some degree, because of the 

 dairying which is carried on near all big centres of 

 population ; but nothing like the great grazing grounds 

 of the Midlands or of some nothern hunts wall be found, 

 and, as far as the beginner is concerned, this is all for 

 the best. In the average country near town there are 

 many big woodlands, in some, steep hills involving 

 careful climbing, both up and down. In all a good 

 deal of plough land, and amongst them every variety 

 of fence, except, perhaps, the stone wall. Thus a 

 beginner in any one of these districts will have oppor- 

 tunity of learning something about crops, of how best 

 to go up or down a steep hill, of when to creep and 

 when to gallop or trot up to a fence, of how to travel 

 through a covert or up and down a gill, and of how 

 to pick his ground. He will, too, have a far better 

 chance of seeing hounds work and of learning to under- 

 stand what they are doing than if he was one of a huge 

 field in a quick grass coimtry, and he will, in brief, 

 have the best possible chance of acquiring knowledge 

 of the sport. 



An apprenticeship to foxhunting should be served 

 in a country of great variety, and not on a 

 monotonous plain, where the sport is much the same 

 from day to day. The novice should, if he can so 

 arrange it, go to a hunt where hounds are one day 

 in the woodlands, a second in the vale, and a third 

 amongst the hills. He should then take careful note 

 of all that he sees. Let him watch the huntsman, the 

 Master, or anyone of the field whom he knows to be a 



E 2 



