HOW SPOET IS SPOILED. 107 



hounds sliould recollect tliat '^ language was given us to 

 conceal our thoughts." He may let out now and again 

 at a detected evil-doer ; but even then he must be guided 

 by prudence, remembering that the safest object of attack 

 is the individual who has no friends. Not that a man is 

 to be pitched into merely as being a stranger ; for, in 

 these days of peripatetic scribes, said stranger might 

 prove to be a ^' Special Commissioner," in which case the 

 master^s character would be shortly given to the world, 

 as viewed from a point from which neither he nor his 

 friends ever regarded it. 



And who else spoils sport in the hunting field ? The 

 huntsman frequently, no doubt, owing to the strong 

 objection the fraternity appear to entertain to letting the 

 hounds hunt the fox — but, this not being an essay on 

 catching the animal, I say no more on that subject. 



But I am sorry to say, even at the risk of forfeiting my 

 character for politeness, that some sport is spoilt by 

 ladies. Not by the ladies who merely come out hunting, 

 and whom everyone is delighted to see, so long as they 

 can either take care of themselves or have someone with 

 them who is equal to their charge. Ladies are an orna- 

 ment to the hunting field, as to any other place that they 

 honour with their presence, when they are properly 

 dressed and understand the game they are playing at. 

 Their commonest fault, by the way, is not giving one 

 time to fall; and though, having tried both, as I have 

 stated in a previous chapter, I am in a position to 

 state that it is more pleasant to be jumped on by a 

 countess than by a cotton spinner, still it is prefer- 

 able to receive the attentions of neither in this way. 

 Also to see a lady get a fall is most unpleasant ; even if 

 she be not hurt, the spectators are bound to be alarmed ; 



