Hunting. 121 



earnest, a small party often agree to shoot as many 

 blackbirds as they can, if possible to make up the 

 traditional twenty-four for a pie. The blackbird pie 

 is, of course, really an occasion for a social gather- 

 ing, at which cards and music are forthcoming.- 

 Though blackbirds abound in every hedge, it is by 

 no means an easy task to get the required number 

 just when wanted. After January the guns are laitl 

 aside, though some ferreting is still going on. 



The better class of farmers keep hunters, and ride 

 constantly to the hounds ; so do some of the lesser 

 men who ' make ' hunters, and ride not only for 

 pleasure but possible profit from the sale. Hunting 

 is, to a considerable extent, a matter of locality. In 

 some districts it is the one great winter amusement, 

 and almost ever}' farmer who has got a horse rides 

 more or less. In others which are not near the 

 centres of hunting, it is rather an exception for the 

 farmers to go out. On and near the Downs coursing 

 hares is much followed. Then towards the spring, 

 before the grass begins to grow long, comes the 

 local steeplechase — perhaps the most popular gath- 

 ering of the year. It is held near some small town, 

 often rather a large village than a town, where it 

 would seem impossible to get a hundred people to- 

 gether. But it happens to be one of the fixed points, 

 so to say, in a wide hunting district, and is well 

 known to every man who rides a horse within twenty 

 miles. 



Numerous parties come to the race-ground from 

 the great houses of the neighborhood. The labor- 

 ing people flock there en masse ; some farmers lend 

 wagons and teams to the laborers that they may 



