FOX-HUNTING TYPES 239 



cold-hunting slowly, it is much more sportsmanlike to 

 go a considerable distance out of one's way to pass 

 through a gate in the fence than to follow them over 

 it. The huntsman and servants may do so — it is their 

 business — but no one need go after them. This may 

 seem absurd to some who read these reflections. If 

 so, let them ask the farmer over whose land they 

 are riding what he thinks about it. 



It must be remarked that among hunting folk the 

 use of the verb " to ride " means, in their parlance, 

 to ride hard across country. "Is he any good to 

 ride?" asks Brown of his friend Jones, with a jerk 

 of his head towards poor Robinson, who passes by. 

 " Not worth a row of pins ! " replied Jones truthfully, 

 according to his rendering of the word. Yet Robinson, 

 though " a trifle delicate in his pluck," as the Irish 

 whipper-in said, may be a finished and powerful horse- 

 man. To the uninitiated it may seem strange that 

 many of the men, who, both in the past and present 

 day, have seldom been seen to ride over a fence, have 

 yet done most to further the great sport of fox-hunting 

 by their princely support and their practical knowledge 

 of hunting in all its departments, but especially in the 

 matter of hound-breeding. 



So much, however, is talked and written on the 

 subject of fox-hunting by those whose knowledge is 

 superficial, that non - hunting folk take their ideas 

 of the chase from the highly coloured descriptions in 

 modern novels, the perpetual chatter about jumping 

 of fences, and, to quote Mr. Jorrocks, from "Mr. 

 Hackermann's pictor shop in Regent Street : There 

 you see red laps flyin' out in all directions, and 

 'esses apparently to be had for catchin*." 



