232 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



liards or cards. She understands that she is on the same 

 footing with the other members, regardless of sex, and 

 if she is the thorough sportsman which she often is in these 

 days, she expects no favours, and men need not feel under 

 obligations to give her any more attention or assistance than 

 if she were one of themselves. 



Precisely the difficulty with ladies in the hunting-field, 

 however, is that men cannot seem to rid themselves of this 

 notion of their devoirs. If a lady is just behind at a gap, 

 for instance, they must halt and let her pass first. This is 

 wrong in the end. They wrong themselves, and make her 

 feel at last that she is a burden. If a gale of wind is 

 likely to slam a gate against her, it should be let to slam. 

 A man is under no obligation to put his horse in a temper 

 or lose his position on this account. If she cannot manage 

 the gate as he had to, let her be caught by it. This may 

 seem a heartless, cold-blooded thing to say, but it is the atti- 

 tude which, in the long run, conduces most to a fair rider's 

 sport and pleasure. 



One hears the unkind comment not infrequently, of 

 course, that men are agreeable and generous in the draw- 

 ing-room, but selfish the moment hounds begin running, 

 and the fault is more with the men really than with the 

 women. Men seem to feel they simply must be gallant. 

 This is especially true of Americans. 



Yet, in one sense, this is only to be expected, for a woman 

 in the field is a constant object of wonderment or admira- 

 tion. There is nothing that sets off a nice hunter as her 

 figure does, nothing that adds more to the beauty and 

 interest of the game than the presence of a goodly number 



