CHAPTER XXX 



WITH A STRANGE PACK 



One of the pleasantest features of fox-hunting is 

 that there is so little jealousy about it. Jealous 

 riding there may be, but that is a very different 

 thing, and though too much of it is to be depre- 

 cated, a little of it gives that spice to the sport 

 which is one of its great fascinations. But the 

 hunting man is not jealous in the same way that 

 the man whose sport is of a solitary nature too 

 frequently is ; he does not look upon his neigh- 

 bour with quite the same eyes, and he regards the 

 stranger as one of the craft. Nor is the reason of 

 this far to seek. Hunting, as conducted in this 

 country, is emphatically a social sport ; times in a 

 week the same men meet in pursuit of the same 

 object, and so they welcome a stranger when he 

 comes to visit them with a heartiness which is 

 typical. That is, the bulk of them do, for I have 

 known countries in which a stranger was looked 

 upon with suspicion, and in which the Master and 

 his followers seemed always on the point of saying, 

 " Why comes this prophet amongst us ? " This, 

 however, is the rare exception, and it must be 

 admitted that there are some who pose as visitors 

 to whom the cold shoulder should be shown. For 

 there are men who go about from country to 



