The Hunting Year 



and all pertaining to it are for him an open book 

 considering his opportunities, and if opportunity 

 comes, as come it may, he may become a shining 

 light amongst hunting men. There have been 

 such amongst his class. 



I have always held that the wise policy for 

 hunting men to adopt is to make the sport as 

 popular as possible. The difficulties which have 

 arisen of late with overgrown fields have rather 

 tended to make hunting men adopt a different 

 policy, and in some quarters hunting is be- 

 ginning to be regarded in the light of a " close 

 borough." This is not to the advantage of 

 hunting as a sport. It is sound policy — on the 

 principle that one never knows what may 

 happen — to give every encouragement to the 

 casual visitor of the class I have been talking 

 about. Let me give an instance of what 

 happened when a different policy was pursued. 



A gentleman went down to hunt a fortnight 

 with a certain pack of hounds. He was a hard- 

 working man, with but little leisure, and for 

 reasons to be afterwards given he was particu- 

 larly anxious to see the pack and gain a 



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