14 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



are really a danger when we consider the number of 

 led horses in the height of condition that are on the 

 roads on a hunting morning. These horses are full of 

 life, and many of them are already in a state of nervous 

 excitement at the prospect of the day before them. 

 Under ordinary circumstances they may be perfectly 

 quiet with motors ; they might indeed meet a motor 

 coming towards them with equanimity. The real 

 danger, even with a fairly steady horse, is when the 

 rapidly driven automobile comes up from behind. If 

 our friends who drive — always, of course, within the 

 speed limit — would only remember, passing from behind 

 at what an automobilist calls eight miles an hour is 

 far more alarming to the horse and his rider than if 

 he meets them. For it is not that animals are as a 

 rule afraid of automobiles ; it is that a high couraged 

 horse is apt to be startled by anything that comes up 

 from behind with some rattle and at what seems to 

 the horse to be a great pace. Then the rider has to 

 be considered ; and he is often more afraid than the 

 horse, and thus communicates his fear to the animal. 

 This is a digression, but not altogether an irrelevant 

 one if it helps the automobilist to understand and re- 

 spect the prejudices and fears of the horseman, to 

 many of whom still his carriage is a strange and fear- 

 some sort of fowl. 



To return, however, to our topic as to what people 

 should come to the grass countries to hunt. We have 

 already indicated one class ; those who come for a 

 pleasant, healthy winter society. For the rest, hunt- 

 ing men may be roughly divided into three classes. 

 There are those, whether in the first flight or not, who 

 mean to ride hard, and do so. This class includes the 

 very few who can ride anywhere on almost any horse, 

 however disagreeable, that is physically capable of 



