HOW TO SAVE THE CHASE: EARLY MORNING HUNTING.
" TT seems to me that one way out of the present diffi- culties we have to contend with in continuing fox- hunting might be overcome if we went back to early morning meets. The objection obviously is that in attaining our ends we might kill the goose which lays the golden eggs." It was a well-known hunting man, with the future of fox-hunting very near to his heart, who expressed the views quoted in the opening sentences. We had been discussing the everlasting topic as to how to surmount the increasing expense and obstacles which beset hunting, and a number of thoughtful fox-hunters, intimate with the internal economy of the chase, who joined in the discussion, were agreed that an outstanding danger to the great winter sport is its popularity and-that it is much more likely to be " hoist with its own petard " than anything else. The increasing number riding to hounds in many parts of England is a direct and constant menace to the good feeling or toleration (as the case may be) of those owning and farming land. Matters were very different when only a few squires and yeomen and an odd parson and sporting tradesman came out with their local pack. They were all known to every one, and even if they occasionally broke down a fence there was a neighbourly feeling and a common love of a fox-hunter which removed all fear of unpleasant- ness. This was when Nimrods were what Jorrocks described as " Peep-o'-day boys," and when they agreed with the same immortal John " what a many delicious moments one loses by smootering in bed. Dash my wig ! if I don't get up at five every morning as long as I live." There is much to say in favour of early morning hunting fixtures, and few arguments against them except the very important one of finance—i.e., would a cock-crow start mean that the income would be reduced pro rata with the falling-off of the number of sportsmen and sportswomen who would still continue to hunt I That is what the ex-M.F.H. whose remarks I have made my text, meant by " the goose which lays the golden eggs." It is perfectly certain that a very great many men -and women who are tremendously keen on hunting in their own way at 11 or 11.30 a.m., when the morning is "aired," when they have had a late breakfast, seen their letters and scanned their newspaper, would find it difficult to rouse their enthusiasm at 7 or 8 or even 9 a.m. They would 'find their " passion for the chess " as dormant as was Benjamin Brady's when the Handley Cross Hounds had one of their sunrise by-days. This is a more luxurious age, and the fact that the present generation do not love the cry of hounds better than their beds is clearly shown by the very select band of choice spirits who are found groping their way to covert-side and greening their breeches' knees in the woodlands during the cub-hunting epoch. The number to whom hound -work, and the science of the sport generally, appeal to-day is probably very small in com- parison with the vast total -who constitute the " glad throng which goes laughing along." Yet the -min' ority, who are really fond of hunting for its own sake and for all that is best in it are the very salt of the earth—the trae descendants of Nimrod himself sportsmen and sports- women in the true sense of the word. They know the rules and etiquette of venery, and would as soon be guilty of picking the pocket of their village curate or playing marbles in the workhouse piggery as wilfully breaking any of them. With them as custodians of the reputation and well-being of fox-hunting there would be little need for pessimism as to the future . . if all things were equal. The unfortunate thing is that most of this type have highly sporting and expensive tastes with very democratic pockets to gratify them. The prayer of the old squire's grandson, " 0 Lord, make all the rich real sportsmen and all real sportsmen rich," does not as yet seem to have received attention—mores the pity. So it will be seen that those who are most welcome out with hounds would not be deterred by an earlier hour of meeting (most of them would possibly welcome it). Many of the sons of Midas, who so largely help to pay the piper, -would not, however, appreciate music of any description at 7, 8, or 9 in a morning. Though our forbears sat late over their port (and many of them were three-bottle men), they had less mental strain than their successors of this generation and possibly better constitutions, despite all the present physical training at schools. " It is the pace that kills," and they knew not the whirl and hustle of to-day. They had somewhat Spartan ideas, too, with regard to luxury, comfort, weather, and bed so far as they allowed these several matters to influence and regulate their sport. Thus one finds many, if not most, of the old hunting songs opening with a record that the sport of the day commenced As soon as 'twas light," or, in the language beloved of the age, " Aurora has mounted her car," Aurora's :Mush dispels the night."
" How sweet the perfume .and breath of the morn, When blushing Aurora gives light to the world ! And sweet are the tones of the echoing horn, When . night's sable robes are invisibly furrd."
Again -:— " Brn• gght Phoebus in his chariot borne, lad scarce proclaim'd the approaching more Scarce had the lark's aerial Sight Proclaim'd the baniahmAnt of night, And with its sweet melodious lay, }laird the long wish'd for Hark-away'"; 'When, from his drowsy bed upsprang Chloris, to join the jovial throng.'
And so one might go on quoting song after song telling' the same story .of early rising for the chase, of the joys of being with hounds at daybreak, of the pleasures of the early morning drag up to the kennel of their fox and so on. They loved hound work in those days, rejoicing to watch the pack work out the stale line of a fox returning from his supper party or amours to the privacy and supposed safety of his couch. They knew the voice of every hound and the value to put upon. it, and they argued that scent lay better before the sun was high and whilst yet the dew was upon the ground and everything was fresh. It was in these times they had hunts—as distinctive from gallops' —of . long duration • albeit it was then they enjoyed hunting apart altogether from the fast and furious fun of the chase. It is to be regretted that so many of those who now ride to hounds (always excepting that band of choice spirits to whom reference has -been made) are fonder of _steeplechasing than hunting—more interested in horses than hounds and in pace than in venatic science. Seeing that this is so, and that the men and women who subscribe to gallop at lunchtime probably would not assist in the upkeep of a pack which began operations at such an Ci ungentlemanly hour " as that at which their .shaving water is brought to them, it is a question whether under present-day-financial conditions many hunts could. be carried on if they did revert to the.custom of saluting the happy morn with "Aurora, Phoebus, Chanticleer and all the rest of them. Evan in Jorrocks's day they were losing -their keenness for groping their way across country before the smoke had begun to ascend from the cottage chimneys, as witness the Handley-Cross M..F.H., feeling.that he would be quite safe from the presence of the " water _drinkers " when he had his famous by-days and set out from the kennels at cock-crow.
-Nevertheless, there is something in the suggestion of reversion. Farmers would welcome the effectit would have on the size and character of the crowd who came out ; masters, who complain that they and their hounds have not elbow-room, would appreciate the altered 'hour, and sport would not only .be better, but the length of the life of the great winter sport would be materially 'extended if old-time expenditure could also be made to suffice.
J. FAIEFAX-BLAKEBOROUGH.
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