236 THE HUNTING FIELD 



chance Tuft Hunter, who yet pretends to great 

 independence, nay, almost blunt rudeness, to noble- 

 men, when away. 



We have met Tuft Hounds of this description — 

 men who talk as if they always spoke their minds 

 most freely — nay, influenced the conduct of noble- 

 men, but who yet were the most abject, servile, 

 sneaking, fawning sycophants in " the presence," the 

 carpet ever saw. These are, undoubtedly, the skirting, 

 babbling, lurching things of the pack, from which no 

 scientific master of " tuft hounds " would even breed. 

 Tuft Hunting, however, is not a sport to be pursued 

 in packs — indeed tuft hounds are generally so des- 

 perately jealous that it is scarcely possible to get two 

 to run together. Tuft Hunters never agree. They 

 are always jealous of each other being on the scent, 

 and then as the pot called the kettle " black bottom," 

 so the cut one calls the other "Tuft Hunter." Flash- 

 ing with titles, calling noblemen by their names, or 

 by their titles without their names, as, "Well, duke, 

 how are you ? " or abbreviating their names, is all bad 

 taste, and has always the contrary effect to what is 

 intended, making the auditors set the flashers down 

 as fools, if not something worse, instead of as very 

 "fine fellows," and "deuced thick with my lord." 

 Flashing behind their backs is more common, but 

 equally snobbish. Why not render unto lords the 

 things that are lords' ? There is no doubt ' that Tuft 

 Hunting is an hereditary instinct, descending from 

 father to son, and traceable through families, just like 

 the gout, the tic, or a taste for foxhunting. A good 

 Tuft Hunting father generally begets a good toadying 

 son. Still we should observe that as the slightest 

 twinge of the gout is enough to make people set a 

 man down as gouty, so the slightest contact with a 

 nobleman is apt to saddle a man with the charge of 

 Tuft Hunting. It is of all imputations the easiest 

 made, and is oftentimes made without the slightest 



