A NEW DEPARTURE 73 



Many a good sportsman echoes the sentiments 

 expressed by the Squire of Hawbuck Grange : 

 " Cub-hunting is only poor sport to any but the 

 interested," said that keen sportsman. " It resembles 

 the tuning of the instruments for a grand let-off 

 concert, all of which is very right, necessary, and 

 proper, but a sort of thing which the public care 

 very little to hear." Yet more people go out cub- 

 hunting than ever, though it is very evident to a 

 keen observer that at least nine out of ten of them 

 care very little about it. 



It is very curious that there should be such a 

 keenness to know where hounds will meet in the 

 earlier days of the cub-hunting season, and even 

 when the hour of meeting is an early one what a 

 large field will draw up ! More than once this 

 cub-hunting season I have seen during the month of 

 September and early in the morning, a field which 

 for numbers would not have disgraced December. 

 I think it would not be right to put this down to 

 an increase of knowledge of woodcraft, though 

 it may, perhaps, in some measure proceed from 

 the next best thing, namely, the desire of 

 knowledge. 



But whatever may be the cause, there is evidently 

 during the last few years a great increase in the 

 numbers of those who go cub-hunting. And during 

 the last two years the cub-hunting meets — all except- 

 ing, perhaps, the very first — have in some countries 

 been regularly advertised. Even in the early days 

 of September, when six o'clock in the morning was 

 the hour of meeting, several hunts, instead of send- 

 ing cards to a favoured few, published their fixtures 

 for the benefit of all whom it might concern. Had 

 this not been done until the second week in October 



