256 FOX-HUNTING TYPES 



to the Hunt as a matter of course, just as he pays his 

 income-tax. He is not likely to take any very active 

 part in furthering the interests of the sport by 

 managing a district, walking a couple of puppies, or 

 making a fox-covert, but he "comes out" and spends 

 part of the day in the saddle, when he will, perhaps, 

 gravely discuss the affairs of the nation with any one 

 who will listen to him ; but, though he may have lived 

 all his life in the country, he is as ignorant of anything 

 connected with the hounds and their management 

 as the peripatetic butterfly who sends down his horses 

 in November to some fashionable locality and sells 

 them in Leicester when the cream of the season 

 is over. 



The migratory variety of the species being essentially 

 your fashionable fox-hunter, he is, it is hardly 

 necessary to say, distinguished by the up-to-date 

 splendour of his attire and general appointments. 

 The cut of his coat, the curve of his hat-brim, the 

 length and colour of the tops of his boots, are matters 

 to him of supremest importance. A few years ago 

 it was correct to have several inches of a gaily 

 coloured silk handkerchief protuding from a cunningly 

 devised pocket, and without this somewhat unnecessary 

 demonstration that he was in the habit of blowing 

 his nose like a Christian he would have been 

 profoundly miserable. It was de rigueur to buckle 

 on his spurs so that the necks were placed half-way 

 up the calves of his legs, and to wear them at his 

 heels would have made him unhappy ; while I have 

 an acquaintance who, I am told, positively refused 

 to come out one morning because among his numerous 



