CHAPTER XIV 



EXPENSES 



Difficulty of laying down Actual Expenses — Melton the Most 

 Expensive Centre — Wages of Grooms — And of Helpers — 

 Forage — Purchase from the Farmer where Practicable — 

 Danger of Friction — Avoid Foreign Produce — Local Trades- 

 men often to Blame — Subscriptions. 



This is a difficult chapter to write, and those who 

 turn to it under the impression that they will find 

 an exact estimate of the cost of a season's hunting 

 in the Midlands will be disappointed. All calcu- 

 lations of this kind must be misleading, for everything 

 depends on the tastes of the individual man or woman. 

 A season or two at Melton, or Market Harborough, 

 will certainly cost more than it will to hunt from 

 home, but not, I think, more than it would to spend 

 a season in a fashionable provincial country like 

 the Duke of Beaufort's or the Bicester. Then again 

 the cost would vary with the locality chosen. No one 

 would choose Melton if economy were an object. I 

 have no doubt that there, as elsewhere, things may 

 be done cheaply, but one would not choose such a 

 place if it were desired to keep the expenses as low 

 as possible. 



Everywhere one hunts from, whether Shires or 

 provinces, horses' meat and grooms' wages have to 

 be paid. My object, then, will be to indicate in what 



