4 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



may stand, and most precarious that footing is 

 if he selects hmiting as the subject of his pen, 

 fortunately for that subject, it has a far firmer 

 hold of public estimation than he who chronicles 

 its joys and incidents; and whatever is written 

 on it is sure to challenge the attention of thou- 

 sands, and, if at all ably handled, will be favoured 

 by the commendation of some. To those I can 

 only say, 



" Blame where you must, be lenient where you can, 

 And be the Critic the good-natured man." 



Among the few who decry hunting and its 

 votaries, we rarely, if ever, find the noble, the 

 high-minded, or the well-educated. The town- 

 bred and half-bred miss, living with her parents 

 in a snuggery, at thirty-five pounds a year rent, 

 in Lambeth, Holloway, or Paddington, where 

 lawyers' clerks, counter gentlemen from linen- 

 drapers, lacemen, and others are regaled with tea 

 and muffins, brought in by a slip of thirteen, 

 denominated, jt?«r excellence, our servant, may hold 

 a lady knowing anything of a horse as contra- 

 feminine, forgetting that ignorance in this way 

 arises from her parents and parents' ancestors 

 never having been in a position in life to have 

 any. The young lady forgets, or rather over- 

 looks, that, from similar causes, she is a no better 

 judge of pictures, bronzes, marqueterie, or exotics 



