i6 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



they were beaten. " After three falls in one day I 

 sold them, and with some big blood horses in Melton 

 condition saw plenty of sport and had no fall," he 

 wrote, when telling of his experience. But if no other 

 horses had been forthcoming, or there had been no 

 money to buy them with, the chances are my friend 

 would have left Leicestershire a worse man to hounds 

 than when he came. 



The third class consists of those who do not mean 

 to jump, but who love the sport for all that. They 

 include those who are past their prime ; those who 

 have lost their nerve or never had any ; those who are 

 bad horsemen and know it, but prefer to call it want 

 of nerve ; and the men who like to see a run and are 

 not particularly afraid of falling, but who never get 

 any fun if they really try to ride to hounds. Such 

 men might, if they were rich and had the gift of common- 

 sense, so that they had nothing but perfect-mannered 

 horses in their boxes, do fairly well in the Shires. 

 They cannot, however, steer an indifferent animal over 

 a big country. 



Now of these three classes, the first and the last will 

 probably have more fun in the grass countries than 

 anywhere else. The first, because the open country 

 enables them to see more of hounds and their work, 

 and the sound turf enables them to gallop faster and 

 to jump bigger fences with more safety than they could 

 do elsewhere. The fact that there are many foxes, 

 too, enables them to see more hunting in the course 

 of a day than is possible in other countries. Very 

 little time is wasted in looking for the fox, for if he is 

 not in one place he is sure to be in another. More 

 often than not, if once the hunt is started it goes on, 

 with a short interval for changing horses and lunch, 

 until it is too dark to see. There are few long and 



