The Hunting Year 



for all that, as in the present case. For it is 

 entirely due to an idle word spoken thoughtlessly 

 by a man who knew nothing about what he was 

 talking of, and who consequently spoke with all 

 the more authority, that the following papers 

 were written. 



As I was coming home from hunting on the 

 last day of a very open and very hard season 

 I met an acquaintance — who, though knowing 

 nothing whatever of hunting — was always very 

 ready to talk about it. Said he : " Now the hunt- 

 ing season is over you will have nothing to do till 

 next November." I pointed out that there were 

 many things to do between April and November 

 — Epsom, Ascot, the big shows, etc., but that 

 even if there were not there was plenty of work 

 to keep a hunting man interested in his own sport 

 in every month of the year. 



As might have been expected, my acquain- 

 tance, whose knowledge of hunting was limited 

 to seeing a few men ride through the town in 

 which he resided — spic and span in the morning, 

 dirty and mud-stained and occasionally carry- 

 ing a little of the freehold of the country with 



