author or The Horsewoman, I intended to follow up the letter T wrote to your paper last October on " Cub-hunting in Leicestershire" by a further account of the real business," which dates from Kirby Gate day, which is generally the first Monday in November. This season it was postponed till the second Monday, owing to the hard state of the ground.' By that time our plans were entirely changed. My husband had accepted a good offer that was made to him by a sportsman well known in the hunting, polo, and yachting world, Major W. Walker of Gateacre, near Liverpool, to go to Cheshire to train a stable of racers and chasers for him. 'The arrangement was 50 sudden and unexpected that I had only time to pack my boxes, put a caretaker into my Melton' Mowbray house, and fit. We had hnd two seasons' good hunting in Leicestershire, and this change to an entirely different hunting country affords me an opportunity of making a comparison and noting points that I think would prove of value to any of my readers who may be coming to England to hunt. The majority of hanting people regard Leicestershire as what Tmay term the finishing school of hunting. When I was abroad, I was constantly asked if I had hunted in Leicestershire and being obliged to always reply that I had not, made me resolve to remedy this, by going there to hunt as soon as T'got back in England. Leicestershire is, I suppose, the biggest country in the world to ride over, and yet the easiest; for only a very few people follow the hounds, and you can hunt there, as one veteran whom I know has done for thirty years, without ever going over a jump I saw in a recent article on hunting that appeared in Bailey's Vagazine the names of ladies, rich and titled ones of course, praised as fine horsewoman" who I know never go a yard It amused me so much, that in mentioning the article in a Melton paper for which wrote the Hunting Notes" while I was there hunting, I told the story of the old sculptor. My' readers will probably remember how the artist on being told that he had expended a lot of exquisite work on the back of the sculpture which would not be seen replied: The gods will see it." So in_ hunting; for the ladies whose capable riding Iadmired in Leicestershire are never mentioned in any newspaper. To write uj mown "potterers" and to omit straight riders as Lady Augusta Fane, Mrs. Lawson, Mrs. Asquith, and a host like them, is to cause amusement to anyone who hunts or has hunted in Leicestershire. However, I only mention this to prove that in Leicestershire, the veriest duffer, supposing he or she is possessed of wealth, may make a newspaper reputation by simply showing themselves at ' every possible meet and then going home! There is no use trying it unless you are rich, as poor people are not recognised in best and easiest way for a stranger to hunt in Leicestershire is to hireysvy a horse from Mr. Sam Haines, the Leicester dealer, or anyone like him, gallop along the grass, make use of a gate as hundreds of others do, or select any of the easy fences, you like. If your horse is fast, you will be able to nip in with hounds every now and then, without any severe strain on your pluck, and the pace of your horse will keep you with the rest and prevent you from "being "pounded." Or you can make a pilot of the veteran to whom have alluded and ride ''for points." He knows every inch of the country, and can trusted not to take you over a single jump. Yet at the first check he always mani to be there or thereabouts. _Knowing what I do about Leicestershire I think it the easiest country in the world to hunt In Cheshire, we have quite a different Jace. There are no gates nor bridle paths ere, at least I have not seen any, and if you leave the ard igh road at all you must jump or go home. There is " deal of plough, wire on every side, ground and "clover root," which last item must not be ridden over on any consideration. It is a very rough, cramped, wire-enclosed country, and there's no sailing away as in Leicestershive. Awkward banks have to be slowly negociated, and fences that look small at first sight are often found to have a_trappy ditch with a deep drop on the landing side. To-day we had a run from Bartington Heath, and having by good luck got into the wake of the huntsman I was about to follow him over a fence when he pulled away with Ware wire!" He said:
never hunted in such a rotten country in my life!" He is a new man this season, Bloore or Boore by name, and was formerly first whip to the North Warwickshire, I think. Right across the hedge in front of us was a line of nasty barbed wire. There is no wire, or very little, in Leicestershire, the farmers take it down. Here, the wire is not taken down. Lord Lonsdale, master of the Quorn makes a point of sending to any farmer who is known to have wire up, and making it worth his while to remove it for the hunting season. This means money and perhaps the North Cheshire hunt does not expend sufficient money to effect this desired end. I have not been long enough here to discuss this point, but here, as in Leicestershire, the farmers hate people riding over their land and the time is not, I think, very far distant when hunting in England will be impossible. The English farmer does not hunt himself, he cannot afford to do so, and we can hardly blame him for resenting the damage to his crops, his fences, his ewes and lambs in the Iambing season, ete., caused by hunting. One Leicestershire farmer told me he had to walk ten miles on a bitter night to find some cattle that had strayed from their field, on account of a gate having been left open by people who had used it. It is no unusual thing in Leicestershire for a farmer and his lads to go out and head a fox that is making for their land, and only to-day a farmer armed with a stout stick stood by his fence, when he saw us making for it and said he would ' brain" the first person who rode over his field! This is really the state of things all over England at the present moment. No wonder, I say, hunting is doomed. I only hope the end. will not come in my time, but all things tend to i The introduction of the bicycle has almost ruined riding-school proprietors in London. The bicycle is safer, costs nothing to feed, and affords any amount of exercise for our boys and girls. Ladies who formerly took riding exercise on a horse now ride a bicycle, and there are riding-schools for bicyclists all over London. I have no doubt that the bicycle possesses some very good points, but give me a good horse and there's nothing on earth to equal the delight of a run across country with hounds showing the way, wire or no wire. You have no inanimate machine under you to push along, your good hunter wants no pushing, he will just carry you through every difficulty and enjoy himself as much you do. He is such a chum and companion and faces danger with such resolute pluck that you can't help loving him. Besides, after a hard day's hunting, when you and he have many weary miles' to trudge home, you feel, as you reflect on the day's doings, full of admiration and gratitude to him. It is impossible to experience this feeling for a bicycle There is one thing in hunting that a lady, es; ly a stranger, will not fail to notice, I am sorry to say, and that is the want of civility from members of our sex. A stranger, if she can ride as well as they can, will have no friends among the Indies. On the contrary, they will treat her with discourtesy, not to say rudeness. I will cite two cases in point that happened to me. Once in Leicestershire I was riding half a field behind a lady, who returned froma fence and towards me. Being on a young horse I asked her, seeing that she had inspected the obstacle, if I could get that way. It was an innocent question, innocently put, but she simply glared at me without speaking and rode away. yard from a fence, but being on this coos Here, I saw a lady standing about ten
sion on a good hunter, I of course passed her and jumped it. To my surprise she came up to me afterwards and said:
right if I had." Her look and manner neatly jumped fon you, and serve you were so aggressive, that I was too much talien aback, to "reply, perhaps it. is better that I did not do so. Surely, I have had sufficient experience in hunting to be able to take my own part and not to need a rebuke that the veriest amateur would resent. For my own safety's sake I naturally avoid the chance of being jumped on. In hunting there is no tine to 0 up to every person who is pausing in front of a fence and ask them if they are going to jump it. Such o question might be taken as an insult, probably would. If 8 Tady, a stranger, happens to get a fall she will receive neither help nor sympathy from the majority of the women out, who will attribute the cropper to incompetent riding. I wonder if the "new woman," of whom we have heard so much, will be a little kinder to her fellow-women? I must not condemn the whole of my sex in this way, as there are many ladies who are kindness itself. My experience of the hard-riding bunting woman, however, is that she is both jealous and rude to any equally straight-riding stranger of her sex, whom she at once regards as a rival and interloper in her special domain, a sort of unbidden and unwelcome guest. Iam getting anald woman, my hair is rapidly turning grey, and in a few years my hunting days will be over. I shall only have the past to reflect upon and I am sorry I shall not be able to look back on my hunting days without these unpleasant memories in connection with my own sex. I have only rarely met a good capable horsewoman who was at all
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.