THE FARMER 173 



hardware. Chub means no harm, indeed there's no 

 better man — regular at church, punctual at business 

 — kind to his wife, ditto his children, pays the 

 income-tax without more grumbling than his 

 neighbours, never keeps the rate or tax-gatherers 

 waiting, and if he only knew when he was going to 

 do harm he would never attempt it; but somehow 

 Chub looks upon the country as a sort of enlarge- 

 ment of Hyde Park, over which a person is at liberty 

 to go any way he can get. True, Chub never 

 attempts the wall or the rails of Kensington Gardens, 

 but that is only because he sees they are too big ; so 

 it may be said he never rides at the Grand Junction 

 or Paddington Canal, but whatever Chub sees at all 

 "upon the cards" he looks upon as fair and proper 

 game — nay, as something that he ought to have a 

 shy at. Nothing short of the fear of a broken neck 

 can turn him to the right or the left. 



So with Paul Poplin — Paul has not the slightest 

 idea of going out of his way for anything except a 

 toll-bar, which he shirks, to avoid paying; and he 

 thinks a red coat would justify his riding into a lady's 

 drawing-room if he liked. Gardens he looks upon 

 merely as small enclosures — fields on a small scale — 

 " retail " ones, as he calls them. Paul has heard of a 

 " bull in a china shop," and it is just to a china shop 

 that Paul's ideas of a bull's capabilities of mischief are 

 limited. He can fancy the consternation the animal 

 would create among the jugs and basons, but as to 

 thinking it could make the slightest difference to a 

 Farmer whether the animal was in his own close 

 or a neighbour's, Paul thinks if he got into the 

 neighbour's it would be so much the better for the 

 owner, as he would get fed for nothing. 



It is only the real sportsman, or person who takes 

 part in the management of a country, that can be 

 fully sensible of the obligations foxhunters are under 

 to Farmers. In the first place, we are indebted to 



