FOX-HUNTING. 21 



who don't go in for honours — who are only too 

 happy with a ** pass," and what endless sources 

 of joy the hunting-field supplies to all classes of 

 riders. In short, to paraphrase a line of Pope, to 



Sec some strange comfort every sort supply. 



From the very first I will go to the very last ; 

 and among these, strange to say, the very hardest 

 riding often occurs. When I have found myself, as 

 I often have — and as may happen through com 

 binations of circumstances to the best of us — among 

 the very last in a gallop, I have observed a touching 

 spectacle. Men, miles in the rear, seeing nothing 

 of the hounds, caring nothing for the hounds, riding 

 possibly in an exactly opposite direction to the hounds, 

 yet with firm determination in their faces, racing at 

 the fences, crossing each other, jostling and cramming 

 in gateways and gaps. These men, I say, are enjoy- 

 ing themselves after their manner, as thoroughly as 

 the front rank. These men neither give nor take 



