WHERE TO HUNT 97 



harm to the sport they profess to love, and I must 

 say it, at the risk of giving offence, their selfish- 

 ness is much more apparent than their sportsman- 

 like feeling. There is also a great charm in 

 hunting from home. A man's business and his 

 social ties and social duties then never fall into 

 arrears. He can get, provided that his home is 

 in a fairly good hunting country, the maximum of 

 sport at the minimum of cost ; he is enjoying 

 his sport amongst friends and neighbours, most of 

 whom he has known from his boyhood ; every 

 covert and every field brings to mind its pleasing 

 reminiscences of sport, reminiscences which never 

 pall, and as he rides home after some good run 

 he can chat with an old friend about a similar 

 run which took place over the country long years 

 before, talk over its similarities and its difference 

 from the run of long ago, and call to mind the 

 doings of more than one favourite hound, i.e. if 

 he be a man who cares for anything more than the 

 mere ride. 



In most districts it is possible for a man to get 

 a day or two in the week with neighbouring packs, 

 and so well is the country hunted nowadays that 

 in many places a man can choose a fresh pack 

 every day. Speaking from a pretty long experi- 

 ence, I am convinced that a man sees the best 

 average of sport when he takes the bulk of his 

 hunting with one pack, taking the rough with 

 the smooth. On many occasions I have known 

 runs over the cream of the country take place 

 from the most unlikely fixtures, and I have seen 

 more than one wild hill fox found in his native 

 haunts and die in the open, as good 'uns should 

 do, after a good forty or fifty minutes over the 



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