CHAPTER IX. 

 The Conditions of Hunting. 



Quite a number of letters have reached me from time to 

 time which practically ask me to include a number of sub- 

 jects in these papers that havci little concern with my past 

 experiences as a follower of hounds. I cannot, for example, 

 compare one particular country with another particular 

 country — as I have been asked to do — ^because, though I know 

 one of the two named very well indeed, my knowledge of the 

 other is extremely superficial, owing to my having only seen 

 it on two or three occasions, with long intervals between each 

 visit. .But to one letter, which came from the Flanders front 

 towards the end of the war, I can reply, and am very glad to do 

 so. The writer, alter expressing a wish that the ' ' carrying-on 

 of the hunts " would be successful, stated that, he and others 

 who had read the series o>i articles would like my opinon on two 

 points, viz. : As to the conditions of hunting; are they better 

 or worse than when I began to hunt? And did I think that 

 hounds had been improved, or the reverse? Both ol these are 

 subjects on which a good deal can be said, and I will begin 

 with the hound question, and may at once say that the whole 

 matter is one of absorbing interest, which increases from year 

 to year, and about which there are many side lines on which 

 there are differences of opinion. Some hold to the idea that 

 different hounds are required for different countries, while 

 others affirm that a good hound is at home in every sort of 

 country. It is often said to be the case that a certain type 

 of horse does better in a hilly country than the upstanding, 

 nearly thoroughbred animal who is perhaps a bit on the leg, 

 but my experience is that the better a horse is bred the more 

 able he is to go anywhere and everywhere, and, for example, 

 the best stayer I saw in my visit to the Devon and Somerset 

 country, which I wrote a few pages back, was a thorough- 

 bred named " Gated," who had won steeplechases and had 

 been in training for long enough. Moreover, the cleverest 

 horse I ever rode in a country of steep hills was a thorough- 



