INTRODUCTION xiii 



single line. Why can't people write of what one 

 wants to know ? " I trust that hunting readers will 

 here find what they want. 



The important subject of capping has been dis- 

 cussed in The Field, The County Gentleman and other 

 papers. This has been a constant, almost burning 

 topic of conversation both in the hunting field and at 

 dinner-tables in the Shires. If worked with tact, 

 courtesy and judgment, and not used as an instru- 

 ment of oppression against the less wealthy residents 

 in the countries where it is established, " capping " 

 should work well. By casual visitors the " cap " 

 ought to be welcomed as a means of making them 

 free of the hunt and of discharging a most undoubted 

 obligation in a convenient manner. Experience will 

 enable Hunt committees to determine the amount 

 suitable and the best method of collection. It may 

 be regretted that the various hunts in the Shires 

 could not have agreed to united action in the matter, 

 but the conference on the subject apparently failed 

 to arrive at any arrangement that was satisfactory 

 to all. This makes the subject more complicated, 

 because it is obviously ungracious and perhaps im- 

 politic to cap a man on Wednesday who has welcomed 

 you to ride over his land on a Monday, or who is a 

 member of a hunt which still freely welcomes the 

 men from neighbouring hunts when they cross the 

 border. But time and experience will no doubt 

 settle all these questions satisfactorily. The spirit 

 is the great thing, for we must always recollect that 

 hunting is not like a polo club or a gate-money race- 

 meeting, and its survival may be attributed as much 

 to the friendly, neighbourly and hospitable spirit in 

 which it has hitherto been carried on as to any other 

 one circumstance. To say that the sport can no 



