40 ?^int^ to 33iitJt(ing Sportsmen. 



If you are asked by the master some such novel 

 and original question as " Do you think you can 

 catch him ? '' (referring, I may add, to the fox), or 

 are called in no minor key an adjectived tailor, accept 

 such remarks as purely complimentary, even if to 

 the ear of the novice they may savour slightly of 

 coarse familiarity. 



In olden times, and still, I believe, in some more 

 obscure countries, (i) Fox, (2) Hounds, (3) Horse- 

 men, used to be the order of precedence ; but in 

 the more fashionable hunts all that is now changed, 

 although the fox may perhaps on occasion (that is, 

 unless the hounds are being " lifted " at a hard 

 gallop without 07ie to the nearest likely covert) still 

 be allowed his old place, hounds and horsemen are 

 always, at all events during the earlier stages of a 

 run, intermixed like the changing hues of a kaleido- 

 scope, provided the scent is only moderate and the 

 fences weak. If otherwise, the black, tan and white 

 will, however, soon assume that position which 

 is, by courtesy, still nominall}^ allotted to it, and 

 retain it, too, as even so hard riding a sportsman 

 as you, my friend, must more than once have 

 witnessed. 



If a flock of merry school children are gleefully 

 shouting at the termination of their lesson hours in 

 the village hard by, when the hounds are moment- 



