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top, by riding at a thick place in the hedge you may ex- 

 pect to get over; hut if a man goes in for that sort of 

 thing, he must know how to fall and be ready to come 

 away if his horse does make a mistake. You ought, too, 

 to be on a very good horse, the sort of horse who will 

 answer to you and will make an extra effort to jump 

 clear when you ask for it. But with all that thrown in, 

 jumping wire is best left to the young and hardy. As 

 dear old Jorrocks says: "Still, a fall's a hawful thing. 

 Dreadful thought! Vere's the brandy?" 



One of the terrible disadvantages of wire is that 

 where it exists one has to go craning and looking at the 

 fences before you dare ride at them -- slow work, and 

 very bad for your horse. Also it must tend to take the 

 dash out of our young thrusters. If a keen lad starts 

 on his own line and jumps big fences, possibly taking a 

 fall or two, only to find himself wired time after time 

 and marked back to the tail of the hunt, it must damp 

 his ardour. 



There are fortunately many blessed counties that 

 are still more or less clear of it, but in most hunts 

 much more could be done. A great step would be gained 

 if someone could be induced to take up the wire question 

 in every parish of a hunt, who would go all round getting 

 any existing wire taken down as far as possible, and re- 

 porting on the attitude towards hunting of any occupiers 

 who still kept it up. The M.F.H., or whoever is ap- 

 pointed by him, would then know exactly where the wire 

 was and what manner of man he had to deal with. Ladies, 

 when they take this work up, do it well. To get it 

 down and put up again costs money, and of course in- 

 creased subscriptions will be needed, but money that 

 gets wire down is well spent. 



■ooOoo- 



