64 UNASKED ADVICE. 



"HANDFULS." 



As tlie season of tlie Epping Hunt — an institution now 

 no more — approaches_, tlie number of incompetent sports- 

 men to be met with out witli hounds invariably increases. 

 Why persons who are unaccustomed to hunting (to put 

 it mildly) should make their first essays in the art almost 

 invariably at that time of year when the ground is 

 hardest, and when as a natural consequence,, falling must 

 be most unpleasant, is a problem far beyond my powers 

 of solution j and, speculation not being my forte, I shall 

 leave the causes of this undoubted fact to be discovered 

 by abler hands. To see a mufi* out hunting is generally 

 amusing, provided his ignorance inconveniences no one 

 but himself. Some slight inconvenience to himself is 

 indispensable for the thorough enjoyment of the sight to 

 the spectators, all human creatures being by nature charit- 

 able, and by habit and custom sympathetic ! Actual 

 danger is another thing — where it exists no people are 

 more unselfish and prompt to aid than sportsmen, but 

 the human mind is so constituted that it takes an uncon- 

 cealed delight in watching the harmless difficulties which 

 have to be surmounted by a tyro in any art of which the 

 looker-on is a master. And this brings us to the subject 

 of ^^handfuls.-'^ To see a friend on a "handful,-'^ if his 

 neck be not in positive danger, is exhilarating to the 

 possessor of a well regulated mind. How much more 

 delightful, then, is it to watch the efforts of a person that 

 one dislikes to control a refractory or too ardent steed ! 



