M THE HITNTING FIELD 



to the f^'cnerous impulses — they had just partaken of the 

 highest enjoyment they know, and, when an Enghshman's 

 heart is fairly moved, it always finds vent through his pocket- 

 hole. The sportsman was carried away by the enthusiasm of 

 the moment, and the hand went in almost naturally. Let him 

 cool, let the cap be next week, and it will be very like paying 

 a heavy doctor's bill a year after a recovery, though we would 

 gladly have discharged it at the end of the illness. Some 

 people cannot resist capping as it is. Old Pigskin's hand, for 

 instance, dives into his drabs as naturally as can be at the 

 end of a good run, and Piggy's liberality leads us to say a 

 few words on the tax-gathering style of collecting. In some 

 hunts, busy men, or men who like to take the credit of others' 

 liberality, institute a sort of compulsory subscription, levying 

 an equal rate on the man who hunts his half-a-dozen days a 

 season, as upon the man who hunts his four or five days a 

 week, dividing what they get with due importance and perhaps 

 some favouritism. This is as bad, or perhaps worse, than the 

 old half-crown system. It takes a guinea from the man who 

 perhaps would give five, and makes a man pay a guinea to 

 whom five shillings is an object. It puts Piggy and Sir Rasper 

 Smashgate on an equality as to means. When lecturing Mrs. 

 Forcemeat Cottonwool on her treatment of our Master at 

 dinner, we advised her to give him credit for knowing his 

 stomach better than she did, and so in this case we advise 

 gentlemen to let others be the judges of their own means. Let 

 every man give what is convenient to him, and give at his 

 own time. Never mind if a few dirty scamps do escape. 

 Huntsmen and Whips have too much spirit to wish to take 

 money from such beggars. Let them ride over them the first 

 time they get them down, or give their loose horses a cut 

 instead of catching them. 



Capping has been going out of fashion ever since the present 

 century came in. Mr. Corbet, we believe, was the last great 



