THE CONDITIONS OF HUNTING. 235 



district, and the miners who formed the crowd were such a 

 sportiug lot that their presence was welcomed a,nd appreciated. 

 But it is the riding following which has caused changes by- 

 its increased size, and more than half of this increase is to be 

 found in the fact that there are five-and-twenty ladies hunting 

 for eveiy one there was forty years ago. In this direction the 

 increase has been literally enormous, and it is not too much 

 to say that in some countries the softer sex numbers quite as 

 strongly as the male followers of the pack. This means that 

 fields have doubled in size, here, there, and almost eiverywhere, 

 but as a matter of fact some fields have been more than doubled 

 because there has been a steady increase in the number of male 

 followers to be added to the lady increase. The upshot of it 

 all is that hounds are frequently too much pressed, especially 

 in the early portion of the day, and very often neither hounds 

 nor huntsman have fair play. All foxes do' not leave the same 

 amount of smell behind them, and all land does not carry the 

 same scent, while undoubtedly there is great variation of the 

 scent-yielding properties of each particular fox, and the 

 weather conditions of the moment. A fox will break covert 

 in view of a large and resolute field, and if riders can be re- 

 strained until hounds are out of covert — which cannot always 

 be done — they will, as soon as hounds are on, break away in 

 a huge mass, and if scent happens to be poor and the pace 

 bad, be on to the top of the pack almost immediately. Then 

 the huntsman often hurries on the pack, and two-thirds of 

 the field, not knowing whether hounds are actually running 

 or not, will hustle after them, driving them well over the line, 

 hindering the huntsman in his work, and doing the hounds- 

 an infinity of harm. This is one of the difficulties which the 

 bigger fields have brought about, and that it is encountered 

 very frequently in various parts of the country admits of no 

 dispute. On the other hand, there are quite a number of 

 Masters of hounds who have succeeded in coping with it, and 

 who, in point of fact, will not allow over-riding to take place. 

 Such men are the saviours of modern hunting, and where they 

 are in office sport is unifoitnly better than where over-riding 

 is not properly kept in check. And here I may state my 

 opinion that the office of Master of hounds exacts much more 

 care and attention and involves much more trouble than it 

 did a couple of gemerataons ago. 



