ORDERL V FIELDS 2o 



many exceptions in which light-weights ride with as 

 much judgment as the heavier lot, but what I wish to 

 explain is that the light-weights are generally those 

 who are guilty of over-riding hounds, etc., and spoiling 

 sport. Even men who have hunted all their lives in 

 the same country, and know every fence in it as plainly 

 as if it were marked out on a racecourse, could never 

 stay to the end of a good thing if they were to crack 

 along in a reckless fashion, and I am quite sure no 

 horse could stand it. 



The small fields of former days, to which I have 

 made reference, were doubtless most orderly, when 

 compared with the enormous crowds which nowadays 

 come out. The Meath hounds were at one time 

 most fortunate in having very select fields, and they, 

 together with the Louth, accounted for more foxes 

 than many of the then other more fashionable packs. 



At the present time, the enormous fields must try the 

 masters much more than in former days, especially 

 since the farmers themselves are not nearly as sport- 

 ing a lot as they were twenty years ago. But I am 

 glad to see that latterly things are beginning to mend 

 somewhat, and there seems every chance of the 

 farmers again taking to hunting as of old. 



Where the field is under control, there is but rarely 

 any necessity to ' lift ' hounds, unless the country is a 

 cold-scenting one. Nothing is more ruinous to hounds 

 than the habit of lifting them constantly ; but where, 

 from the nature of the soil, it is necessary to do so, the 

 lowest possible hounds should be used, with noses ' that 

 would pick up scent in a road in the month of March.' 

 I have always remarked that low hounds are the best 

 for cold-scenting countries, and I have had many a 



