CONCLUSION. 77 



scarlet, and the custom varies greatly in many parts 

 of the country, some hunts having a far greater per- 

 centage of scarlet wearers than others, while in the 

 small, very provincial hunts it is sometimes hardly 

 worn except by the Master and hunt servants. A 

 novice who began his hunting career in scarlet would 

 doubtless come in for the sneers of some of the field, 

 but a novice who was clever enough to adapt himself 

 to hunting manners and customs in a very short space 

 of time would hardly be noticed, especially if he hunted 

 where there was a large field. Indeed, I once saw 

 a man have his first day's English hunting in scarlet 

 and leathers, but he had learnt to ride in the Australian 

 bush, and the only question asked about him was as to 

 which hmit he came from. 



To turn to yet another subject, the novice Avould do 

 well to study some of the great amount of hunting 

 literature which has appeared at intervals since Beck- 

 ford wrote his "Thoughts on Hunting." This book, it 

 need hardly be said, is the great classic of the sport, and, 

 though it was written a good deal more than a hundred 

 years ago, there is, allowing for the changed condition 

 of the country and ergo of the sport of foxhunting, 

 very little in it which is not applicable at the present 

 day. It deals with hunting from its very root, and those 

 novices who wish to possess a real command of the 

 subject, and who even dimly aspire to the dignity of 

 mastership at some future date, would do well to make 

 themselves thoroughly acquainted with it. Then all 

 Surtees's books may be read with advantage, for it is 

 just as well that the comic side of hunting should be 

 studied, and in these particular books there is immense 



