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would do credit to a professional jockey finishing a 

 neck-and-neck race for Derby honours. In no cir- 

 cumstances in life, however, is the Scriptural proverb, 

 '' The first shall be last," more fully realised, because 

 the first stone wall is generally sufficient to dampen 

 their ardour and reverse the order of the riders, sub- 

 stantiating the Scriptural quotation in a very forcible 

 manner. Out of the thirty or forty riders only about 

 ten or a dozen will negotiate the wall, thus the real 

 followers are divided from the imaginary, and the 

 former go on straight with hounds, whilst the latter 

 betake themselves — some to look out for a gateway, 

 others to pull down the wall to its very foundation. 

 These are the gentlemen who, squandered over the 

 whole district in search of hounds, tell every shep- 

 herd they meet that they have been ''Thrown out!" 

 '' Deucid unfortunate!" etc., and who thereby bring 

 down the general character of hunting and reduce 

 the time-honoured sport to a ludicrous burlesque. 



A good story is told of a stray follower of this 

 class who came galloping up to a shepherd with the 

 salutation, " Halloa, man ! has that wet piece of 

 ground got a bottom?" "Ay, sir!" replied the shep- 

 herd, taking in at a glance that he was no rider, 

 "it has." On went the madcap, and before he had 

 taken a couple of strides he was up to the saddle- 

 flaps in black mud and water. "Villain!" shouted 

 the unfortunate swell, in accents of anger, "you told 

 me it had a bottom." " So I did," replied the honest 

 shepherd, " but I never said where it was ! " 



