HUNTING ACCIDENTS 147 



cause of the growing evil. When in one hunt, 

 and that not a particularly large one, the number 

 of sportsmen laid up during the season from 

 fractures, concussions, and other injuries amounts 

 to about eight per cent of the average number 

 found at the meet, it is time indeed to look round 

 and ask questions. 



Of course, it is an understood thing that he who 

 plays bowls must expect rubs, and it is impossible 

 for a man who rides over a country to secure an 

 immunity from falls. These he will get whether 

 he rides over a difficult or an easy country, and 

 more frequently, perhaps, in the latter than in the 

 former ; at least, that has been my experience. 

 Occasionally also a man will get nastily hurt, and 

 at times the whole hunting world will be shocked 

 by a fatal accident. But these serious accidents 

 are becoming more numerous, and the increase in 

 the size of the fields is not sufficient to cause the 

 increase in nasty accidents. It has been said that 

 hounds run faster than they did, and that on 

 that account accidents more frequently happen ; 

 but the accidents do not happen as a rule when 

 hounds are running their hardest, a hunting run of 

 an hour and a half at a holding pace being generally 

 more productive of serious disaster than a brilliant 

 forty minutes. Blind drains contribute their quota 

 to the dismal roll, and there is no doubt that in 

 some countries ditches are not so scoured out as 

 was the case when agriculture was prosperous, and 

 every farmer vied with his neighbour in the neat- 

 ness of his holding. 



I think that one fruitful source of misadventure 

 is the lack of judgment displayed on the part of 

 many of the field. They have entered upon 



