MODERN FOX-HUNTING 19 



vigorously in the rear, vainly urging the unwilling steed 

 to a supreme effort, is a picture which we laugh at 

 when delineated by Mr. Finch Mason ; but in the 

 hunting-field our feelings are mingled with disgust and 

 pity — pity for the lady in distress, and disgust for the 

 mean fool who mounted her on a bathing-machine 

 horse. I have before me a little book written by Lady 

 Violet Greville, entitled " Ladies in the Field." I 

 cannot agree with all her opinions. Thus she tells us 

 that "no lady should hunt till she can ride, by which I 

 mean, till she can manage all sorts of horses, easy and 

 difficult to ride, till she knows how to gallop, how to 

 jump, and is capable of looking after herself." I know 

 ladies who can fulfil these acquirements, but they were 

 taught to ride as little girls in the hunting-field by 

 their fathers or elder brothers. We have heard the 

 story of the maiden aunt who forbade her nephew 

 to go into the water until he could swim, but I was 

 surprised that Lady Violet should have applied the 

 story to the hunting-field. 



Outside London and the large towns, so far as I am 

 aware, there is not a single riding-school where ladies 

 can be taught to jump. There are dealers who possess 

 paddocks in which they have erected every description 

 of made fence. Some of these paddocks might almost 

 be described as miniature steeplechase-courses, and the 

 dealers are willing to give lessons if they scent a future 

 customer. But where the lady has a male relation who 

 can ride, and is capable of imparting instruction, he 

 should be the riding-master. Jogging along country 

 lanes, or cantering in the Row, will not make a lady a 



