112 SPORT IN EUROPE 



builders. The large racing stables in England turn out hundreds 

 of thoroughbreds, improving the breed by a continual selection. We 

 are bound to employ their trainers and their jockeys, and our breed- 

 ing, though increasing each year, is limited. It is all the want of 

 money ; if money is the sinews of war, it is also the sinews of the 

 higher kinds of sport. And if we review those sports which have 

 real agricultural or commercial importance, we shall soon be con- 

 vinced that it is usually the lack of necessary means that paralyses 

 our endeavours. 



We have breeders of the first order, and our horses and hounds 

 are equal, if not indeed superior, to any in England. Pigeon shoot- 

 ing has produced a class of shooters that would bear comparison 

 with any in Europe, and such of our hunting men as have kept up 

 the traditions of a thoroughly French art have by judicious crosses 

 formed splendid packs of hounds, though fairness demands the 

 admission that our hound-breeders owe their success to crossing 

 with English blood. It would also be as well not to take credit 

 for an error noticed by all who have resided in England. That is 

 to say, the sport of foxhunting is one in which the qualities of horse 

 and horseman are above all in evidence, and it matters little whether 

 the hounds kill several foxes in succession, so long as the country 

 is attractive, the fields green, the obstacles surmountable, and the 

 pace that of an express train. If we leave the shires, where these 

 wonderful horsemen vie with one another on mounts of great power, 

 and if we visit Somerset, we find packs chasing the wild stag like 

 our French packs, which we are always glad to increase with drafts 

 from England. 



