The Hunting Year 



life in which every nerve has to be strained to 

 keep or gain that place in the world which is 

 his due. For him, if he would see but a little 

 of the sport he loves so well, there is no trip to 

 Switzerland or Scotland in sweltering summer 

 heat — he has to see that through ; but as he 

 slaves on at his work there are occasional 

 visions of a tired but happy man riding home 

 in the dusk of a winter evening, which restore 

 his flagging energies ; and as he smokes his last 

 pipe before turning in he builds castles in the 

 air about a happy fortnight in the country of his 

 choice. 



It is no small thing to him this fortnight's 

 hunting. For it he has to make many sacrifices 

 and to practise many small economies of which 

 the majority of hunting men know nothing. 

 He has to hire four horses at the fewest, and he 

 must hire them well in front of the time he wants 

 them if he will be well served. Then there is 

 the Hunt subscription, which I make bold to say 

 in many countries is grievously heavy for a man 

 in his position. So that altogether his expenses 

 mount up to a very respectable total. 



IOO 



