Fox-huntmg Past and Present 



really leaves him. Take the man who is genuinely 

 bitten by a love of the chase ; his keenness may 

 triumph over advancing years ; he earns the so- 

 briquet, *^good old sportsman." His ^'eccen- 

 tricity" is tolerated by many of his friends, who 

 consider hunting a most dangerous form of mania, 

 and whose only participation in manly exercise 

 is the occasional watching of a cricket-match. 



Let us pass on. The '' rider," he who hunts to 

 '' ride," certainly feels the true rapture of the 

 sport ; but it is the riding that takes his fancy 

 first, the love of hunting may follow in days to 

 come. The man who rides seldom notices the 

 true element of poetry that undoubtedly under- 

 lies every true sport, and the lights and shades 

 of the hunting-day. 



The mise en scene, though a wintry one, is usually 

 attractive. Doesn't the wind slightly move the 

 leafless trees in the covert which the hounds are 

 drawing ? See those water-drops on the trees ; 

 they are often a sign of a good scenting day. 

 No, there is none of spring's pushfulness, sum- 

 mer's fulness, or of autumn's decay. Still, the 

 open winter day has its attractions. So the young 

 rider who '' hunts to ride " says to himself, like 

 one of those Melton "Bloods" in the old story: 

 *' What splendid fun we should have if it were 

 not for those infernal hounds." Then as to the 



man who '^ rides to hunt " : no minutiae of hounds, 



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