AN ORTHODOX SPORTSMAN. 215 



that true pluck and high courage only exist where 

 roast beef is at a premium. A Frenchman is no 

 fox-hunter : he does not, nor as yet cannot, enter 

 into the spirit of it ; but those must have remained 

 at their mamma's side all their lives, who would 

 attribute any failure in anything on the part of a 

 Frenchman, or indeed any foreigner, to any lack 

 of personal courage. 



I have said that I would as soon ride a post- 

 horse an airing as a job- hunter with hounds : such 

 is my feeling ; but I am quite aware it is not that 

 of a true sportsman, or true fox-hunter. I doubt 

 my being either at heart ; for the man who makes 

 the great pleasure of hunting to consist in riding 

 fine or neat horses, with as neat bridles and sad- 

 dles, does not show, in the first rank, as a true 

 sportsman. Now, our truly orthodox writer in 

 the Sporting Magazine, Acteon, is every inch a 

 sportsman, every half-inch a fox-hunter ; his heart 

 and soul are in his hounds and their hunting ; he 

 would ride in a balloon, if he could see his hounds 

 hunt, or would ride a butcher's hack rather than 

 not see hounds at all, and, in truth, few men can 

 screw a queer one across a country better, or as 

 well as he can. All those who know him, only 

 wish him a stud as good as he could ride, a pack 

 as good as he could hunt : and if I could com- 

 mand my fate, it would be, that I could hunt 

 with him ; for if not so true a sportsman as he^ 



