-65- 



promptly put a wire fence all round his property, kept 

 his gates locked, and warned hounds off. 



The sad thing about it was that the man who did 

 all the harm was a keen, good sportsman, with charming 

 manners except when he got excited out hunting. For 

 years, though, the matter could not be put ri I . I 

 have known even more trivial things put men against 

 hunting, and very often they nurse their grievance and 

 won't tell anyone what it is. 



All cannot subscribe largely, but all who are keen 

 can help the hunt in many little ways. As I have 

 already said, it seems certain, too, that expenses will 

 go up and subscriptions will have to oe increased. 

 After all, our subscriptions have in the past been a 

 very small part of our expenses. This proportion will 

 have to be altered. young man too often lavishes 

 money on his horses, on his clothes, and in Londo 

 during a frost, and gives a very inadequate subscription 

 to hounds. 



As for horses, we cannot go without them, but we 

 may have to do with a smaller and cheaper stud and 

 produce a bigger subscription. The man with a small 

 stud, who rides his horses about in the summer and 

 takes them cub-hunting, has an advantage over the man 

 with the big stud, who hurries down after the season 

 has begun, and hardly nows one of bis horses from 

 another. He at least misses the great pleasure of 

 getting his horses perfectly to hand, so that they do 

 exactly what he wants in the way he wants. 



//hyte Melville, in his very fascinating "Riding 

 Recollections," gives the following vivid description 

 bearing on this point. (I would go bail that the 

 reverend gentleman in question had onl;^ a small stud, 

 and did not leave the exercising of them entirely to 

 grooms ) . 



"I remember," he writes, "seeing the Rev. John 

 er, an extraordinarily fine rider of the last 

 generation, hand his horse over an ugly iron-bound stile 

 on to some stepping-stones, with a drop of six or seven 

 feet, into a Leicestershire lane, as calmly as if the 

 animal had ceen a lad- tie was taking out for a walk. 



"He pulled it jack into a trot, sitting very 

 close and quiet, with his hand raised two or three 

 inches above the withers, and I can still 



