28 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



from the different positions in life, and conse- 

 quently, different animus that pervades the two 

 individuals. To make this clear, I will select 

 two packs illustrative of this difference ; and as 

 most of those who hunted with the two packs in 

 question (unless they were at the time, like my- 

 self, in boyhood) have ceased to breathe, I can 

 offend no one by my remarks. 



I will specify the two packs of fox-hounds that 

 years back hunted Hertfordshire; the one the 

 Essex, the other the Buckinghamshire side of 

 the county ; the latter were nominally the Mar- 

 quis of Salisbury's. I say nominally, for though 

 they were his property, they were under the con- 

 trol of the Marchioness ; for when I knew them 

 their lord was too infirm to hunt. The Mar- 

 chioness was the perfection of a hunting horse- 

 woman ; rode as straight and boldly as I hold any 

 gentlewoman should ride, while a servant, whose 

 respectful demeanour showed him the servant of a 

 nobleman, attended or piloted her, as the case might 

 be. Many women I have known since, and know 

 now, could beat her across a country, perfect horse- 

 woman as she was : but they wanted and want 

 that tact and manner that, in all cases, the other 

 showed. In her, while we admired the horse- 

 woman, nothing was done that could for a moment 

 compromise the Marchioness, the wife of the noble 

 owner of the pack. The number of the field 



