SPORTSMAN 195 



ardour of the chase ; and many masters would 

 rather witness such accidents occasionally than see 

 men hunting without that ardent feehng for sport. 

 Deprive fox-hunting of that intoxicating sensation, 

 and it becomes wretchedly spiritless, and men may 

 as well hunt a tame rabbit round a di'awing-room, 

 mth the di*ead of being called to order for fear of 

 breaking the crockery. No ! Fox-hunting is no 

 longer what it should be, when men ride in dread of 

 being overhauled or abused by a master or a hunts- 

 man, who cannot himself ride at the head ; for when 

 he is there (in his place) and can look the men in 

 the face, he is sure to be obeyed at a word ; and it 

 is difficult, or impossible, to instil into men who do 

 not understand hunting, or scarcely even when 

 hounds are at a check, the exact distance they 

 ought to keep from hounds. 



It often happens that young men are observed 

 to take every opportunity of giving their horses a 

 gallop before the hounds have found their fox ; and 

 indeed it often happens that their horses are more 

 than half beaten before that time, although others 

 at the same time are perfectly fresh after the hounds 

 have been drawing several hours. Not long since, 

 a young man from one of the universities amused 

 a party who overheard him asking the whipper-in 



