FOX-HUNTING TYPES 237 



There are men who ride to hunt with every pack 

 in the kingdom. My own slight experience of hunting 

 in the West of England leads me to imagine that 

 they have a larger supply down there than elsewhere, 

 though I suppose that the North Country runs them 

 close. On the Irish side of St. George's Channel this 

 brand of sportsman is not so frequently found, though 

 it is said that the late Master of the Carlow and Island 

 Hounds (Mr. Robert Watson) had educated a pretty 

 large field of horsemen to ride without hazarding their 

 own sport, and to share in some degree his own 

 sympathy and interest in the work of the hounds. 

 But men of Mr. Watson's calibre and extraordinary 

 personal influence are rare indeed, and the exuberant 

 animal spirits and general excitability with which 

 Hibernian sportsmen have been credited are not 

 altogether conducive to the power of taking pleasure 

 out of a slow hunting run. 



This mention of what I have seen effected by Mr. 

 Watson brings one back to the reflection that the 

 Man who Rides to Hunt must have been educated to 

 the business ; and this matter of education is in the 

 present day declared by many Masters of Hounds to 

 be very urgently required. Very recently I received 

 a strong letter upon the subject, in which the writer 

 declared that it would soon not be possible to carry 

 on the sport in particular districts where so many 

 people who came out displayed entire ignorance of 

 what they were about, and whose sole idea of fox- 

 hunting appeared to be to ride over the country, and 

 on all occasions to keep as near to the hounds as 

 possible. Now, the Man who Rides to Hunt will, from 



