176 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



country, never subscribing a farthing to hounds 

 or to poultry fund, and who turn a deaf ear to all 

 the legitimate demands made upon them. These 

 gentlemen form one of the difficulties of modern 

 hunting, and they are a thorn in the side of 

 masters of hounds and secretaries. It is for their 

 behoof that the system of capping is being revived 

 in some countries, a system which is certainly an 

 ungracious one, though it is not easy to see how 

 otherwise to meet what is admitted on all hands to 

 be a great and growing evil. 



Such men as these are, however, not to be 

 looked upon as visitors in the true sense of the 

 word, and with them I have nothing to do here. 

 Strongly as I advocate a man hunting from his 

 own home, I think that every hunting man should, 

 when opportunity offers, try to see other packs 

 and other countries. By so doing he will enlarge 

 his knowledge of the sport, he will get to know 

 other methods, and he will make a vast number of 

 new friends, with whom he will have at least one 

 object in common. He will also store up for 

 himself many pleasant memories ; hounds and 

 horses whose names will live in history may have 

 become more or less familiar to him, and unless he 

 is very unfortunate he will have met with, and 

 seen, and talked to some of the most skilled ex- 

 ponents of the Noble Science. 



I am inclined to think that to get a correct 

 idea of a strange pack of hounds it is by no means 

 necessary to go into their best country, or put 

 oneself to all sorts of inconvenience to reach a 

 favourite fixture. In the first place, at the 

 favourite fixture there is sure to be a crowd, and 

 I take it that it is the hounds that are the object 



