ENGLISH SPORTSWOMEN 241 



up-to-date, though written many years since, is 

 " Riding Recollections," by the late Whyte- 

 Melville. He was a pretty and well-turned-out 

 sportsman, who wrote on the subject he loved, 

 lived and died at hunting. Nevertheless he was 

 not in the front rank of first-flighters. Nor is this 

 to be wondered at, because to ride with the first- 

 flighters in Leicestershire demands high-class 

 horses which Why te- Melville did not keep. In 

 addition to this drawback, he had to contend with 

 requests from the public and, possibly, publisher 

 to produce constant work to satisfy their craving 

 for his first-rate writings. And the literary gift 

 is very finely edged intellectually, and is bad for 

 riding. It makes men and women, too, have 

 breakdowns from the sedentary life and the worry 

 of following a precarious calling which teems with 

 petty annoyances. Perhaps, for this reason, few 

 literary men have performed over a country or 

 between the flags as well as many other horse- 

 men who have not penned their knowledge and 

 rushed into the arena of print. The Badminton 

 Library has the great advantage of being com- 

 piled by the best authorities on sport ; and 

 though the criticisms concerning Whyte-Mel- 

 ville not being a thrusting rider is not intended 

 to cast any reflection on him, he was not only 

 a good man to hounds only averagely mounted, 

 but the finest sporting novelist who ever wrote 

 grammatically and stirringly in the English 

 language. This is acknowledged by all lovers 

 of sport ; and those who seek to fill the gap 

 caused by his tragical death need not feel 



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