SPORTSMEN AND SPORTING MEN 267 



zealous desire to contribute to the amusement, hap- 

 piness, and welfare of all his fellow beings ; he is 

 generously liberal, and his purse is ever open according 

 to its capacity to relieve distress. Zealously devoted 

 to sport, he enters into it con amore, watching every 

 event with interest ; thus he derives all the enjoyments 

 the pursuit is capable of affording. The sporting man, 

 on the other hand, is quite a different character. He 

 professes to be fond of field sports because he imagines 

 it raises him in the estimation of his unsophisticated 

 companions, and he fancies he deceives others into the 

 same impressions. The most interesting occurrences in 

 the chase or other sporting events are unheeded, be- 

 cause he is scarcely able, even if willing, to appreciate 

 them. He may or he may not be a hard-riding man; 

 but if he is his presence with hounds is a source of regret, 

 because he never fails to over-ride them when he has 

 an opportunity, for the sake of distinction, which is his 

 greatest idol. The manners of the gentleman are innate 

 in the sportsman, though assumed by the sporting-man, 

 who mingles some little inapplicable technicalities with 

 slang — sure indication of a vulgar mind. 



Refinement has made its way to the covert side as 

 well as into the more polished spheres of social inter- 

 course. Courtesy and decorum are as necessary in the 

 field as in the drawing-room, and the same observance 

 of etiquette which stamps the gentleman in one situa- 

 tion accompanies him in the other. Rivalry comes 

 into effect principally in a run, and is very inoffensive 

 in its nature. Some ardent spirits are ambitious of the 

 lead, while others are perfectly indifferent who may be 

 before or behind them, so long as they are in a position 

 to see the hounds perform their work. Perchance the 

 latter are the most zealous in the good cause. If gentle- 

 men would not ride quite so close to hounds and to 

 each other as they usually do, it would be more con- 

 ducive to sport and personal convenience. One man 

 may come in contact with another in an open field, no 

 insult or annoyance is intended, neither is any injury 



