THE BAEB AND THE BRIDLE. 131 



while a well-bred young one requires a great deal of riding on such 

 occasions. 



The short bursts sometimes obtained in " cub hunting" are capital 

 practice for a lady ; while occasionally a veteran fox, some wily old 

 purloiner of poultry, affords a good twenty or five-and-twenty 

 minutes, even when the fences are blind. I recommend our pilot, 

 liowever, to keep his charge out of these latter matters, for blind 

 jumping is always bad for a lady. 



As regards taking a beginner out with harriers, I am against it. 

 It is very well for invalids or corpulent gentlemen who are " doing 

 a constitutional ; " but it teaches a young lady nothing of what is 

 really meant by hunting — which, however, she is in a first-rate 

 position to learn with the cubs. 



Staghimtmg with a deer turned out from a cart and caught with a 

 whipthong, is equally inefficacious, because the hunting as a rule 

 only commences when the run is over. Moreover, there is always a 

 crowd of people who come out for riding only, and care notliing about 

 hunting, and these are the most likely to get into a lady's way, and 

 bring her to grief. 



The same may be said of drag hunting, which I hold to be no place 

 for a lady, any more than steeplechasing. 



Let us then, legitimately to inaugurate our pupil into the usages 

 and forms of hunting proper, stick to cub hunting until November 

 opens the fences and gives her a chance to prove the value of her 

 previous instruction. 



Before closing this article, I cannot refrain from citing an instance 

 of the great value of a lady learning to cross the country well, 

 irrespective of the sport of foxhunting and its health-giving and 

 exhilarating effects. Within ten miles of where I write this resides a 

 lady, young, wealthy, and beautiful, who, although not a religious 

 recluse^ is as thorough and sincere a devotee of religion as any 

 cloistered nun. Her whole time is spent in acts of charity, and 

 ministering to the spiritual and bodily welfare of the poor for miles 

 round her residence. No weather is too inclement, no night too 

 dark, to stop her on her errands of mercy and charity. If sum- 

 moned even at the dead of night to attend the bedside of a sick or 



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