-2- 



my determination to hunt, and perhaps the experience 

 I collected may be of xxse to those who have to hunt 

 "on the cheap" . 



It may be that many a lad in whose way riding 

 had not previously come, joining a cavalry or yeo- 

 manry regiment for the War, has realised the joy 

 of riding and found himself a horseman. If to 

 any such, when they take to hunting, the hints 

 in this book prove of service, I shall be rewarded. 



I have kept a hunting diary since the year 1887, 

 which to some measure should restrict me to actual 

 facts in the following pages. 



It has been a pleasure to turn over old diaries 

 and letters which recalled good hunts enjoyed with 

 cheery comrades in days gone by, but I recognise 

 clearly that, in illustrating my various arguments 

 and points by personal experiences, I cannot fail 

 to be somewhat egotistical. 



Many better men to hounds have I seen, but obvious- 

 ly one can only write with inside knowledge of one's 

 own experiences, not of other men's. ..'hat first 

 made me think of embarking on this book was the habit 

 I noticed in so many men, some of them good horsemen, 

 of accepting their hunters, so to speak, as they found 

 them. 



Kow often one hears a man say: "This brute 

 won't ,iump without a lead," or "won't face water," 

 or "cannot be got over any sort of a fence out of a 

 road." ow, any such faults result in a horse 

 being almost useless as a hunter. When the rider 

 was a rich man, it generally meant that he sent the 

 horse back to the dealer whence it came, and got 

 another in its place. You may be sure the dealers' 

 man soon knocked the fault out of it, whatever it 

 might be. cut if you are a poor man and become 

 owner of a horse with some such fault, you have to 

 take the place of the dealers' man, and by determined 

 and skilful riding "straighten it out" yourself. 



