i 3 4 ECHOES OF SPORT 



natural process, or at the will of some animal 

 of prey. To kill quick and sure is kinder than 

 Nature's way of old age or lingering pain. 

 In fox-hunting the only charge of cruelty that 

 can legitimately be alleged is that of frighten- 

 ing and hunting an animal till he is caught, or 

 dies from exhaustion, and the defence is that 

 this happens comparatively seldom. 



What a debt of gratitude and pleasure one 

 owes to all the good horses that carry one. 

 Their manners, their courage, their keenness, 

 their cleverness are all the reasons of one's 

 comfort and enjoyment, to say nothing of 

 one's safety. The big brown mare who first 

 initiated me into the joys of hunting, the 

 steady old roan who of late years has brought 

 me back to confidence and condition, the 

 eighteen-year-old veteran whose cleverness 

 is more than human, and who has carried his 

 mistress since he was four and only given her 

 two falls. The beautiful chestnut, grand- 

 daughter of Bend Or, to whom Iwaspromoted 

 but a year ago, the blaze-faced mare who gave 

 me one of my best rides last season in a storm 



