FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 19 



their place. If Lord Gardner's estimate is correct, 

 that it takes as much out of a horse to jump a big 

 fence with fourteen stone on his back as to gallop over 

 half a big pasture, the horses of the non-jumpers will 

 have done at least as much work as those of the leaders 

 at the end of the day. In all probability they will 

 have done more if we reckon the steadying at the 

 muddy gateways, the loss of the pulls which those in 

 front can take advantage of when hounds waver or 

 turn towards them, or during those infinitesimal checks 

 of which those in the rear know nothing, and if we 

 consider, too, the extra distance travelled. The tribe 

 of the Jorrocksites want two horses out, and good 

 ones in their way, just as much as do the first flight 

 men, and they will see much sport and have their 

 share of lucky days. To speak from my own experience, 

 I have galloped for two miles alongside the hounds 

 from a certain famous covert, through a line of gates 

 which my leader threw open ; and, again, a well- 

 known Leicestershire farmer told me the other day 

 that he had ridden for some miles of one of the famous 

 hunts of the season 1902-3, and never left the hounds, 

 and yet never had occasion to jump. 



These are the good days, but there are, of course, 

 the bad ones, when hounds are always turning away 

 from us. Still, from the nature of the country, the 

 wide prospects and the fact that hounds are generally 

 in the open, also because there are many gates and 

 many bridle paths, Leicestershire is unequalled for 

 those who like to see something of hounds and who do 

 not mind galloping down hill as well as up, or going 

 over rough ground as well as smooth, and who, at the 

 same time, possess temperate horses. 



The intermediate class of whom I have spoken will, 

 on the other hand, have much more fun in the pro- 



