8o FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



amptonshire is like that between playing at Lord's or 

 the Oval. The real fact is that there are more people 

 and less room in the Pytchley country than in many 

 other parts of the Shires. The difficulties in the field 

 with these hounds have been hit off by the same 

 keen observer quoted above. " If anything will teach 

 one to gallop, it is riding for a bridle gate in the com- 

 pany of three or four hundred people, none of whom 

 are morbidly civil. You must get there and get 

 there soon, as it is the only visible means of securing 

 a start, or getting into the next field. Sometimes 

 one's horse has a sensitive habit of backing when he 

 is pressed, which allows every one to pass you. In 

 any case you will have a horse's head under each 

 arm, a spur against your instep, a kicker with a red 

 tape in his tail pressed against your favourite mare, 

 with the doubtful consolation of being told when the 

 iron of his hoof has rattled against her foreleg that 

 ' it was too near to have hurt her.' Your hat will 

 be knocked off by an enthusiast pointing to the line 

 the fox is taking, and your eye will dimly perceive 

 the pack swinging over the ridge and furrow, like 

 swallows crossing the sea, two fields ahead of you." 



It would be impossible to improve on the vividness 

 or realism of that sketch, which has the advantage 

 of being written by one who knew. " No one," con- 

 tinues the writer, whose judgment may possibly have 

 been a little coloured by her love for Melton — " no 

 one is responsible for the manners of a field which is 

 largely made up of specials from Rugby, Leamington 

 and Banbury. A Northamptonshire hunting man is 

 as nice a fellow as there is in England, . . . but the 

 struggle for existence in the field with hard riding 

 casuals has hardened his heart and embittered his 

 speech." 



