FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND. 211 



not conspicuous. The same number of handsome 

 young men and women would be more demon- 

 strative at a similar gathering in America. A 

 similar gathering, however, would not be possi- 

 ble in America. We have no occasion on which 

 people of all sorts come so freely and so natu- 

 rally together, interested in a traditional and 

 national sport, which is alike open to rich and 

 poor, and meeting, not for the single occasion 

 only, but several times a week, winter after win- 

 ter, often for many years. Noblemen, gentlemen, 

 farmers, manufacturers, professional men, snobs, 

 cads, errand-boys, — everybody, in short, who 

 cared to come seemed to have the right to come, 

 and, so far as the hunt was concerned, seemed 

 to be on an equal footing. Of course the poorer 

 element was comparatively small, and mainly 

 from the immediate neighborhood. The habitues 

 of a hunt are seldom below the grade of well- 

 to-do farmers. Servants from the house were 

 distributing refreshments, riders were mounting 

 their hunters, grooms were adjusting saddle- 

 girths, too fiery animals were being quieted, and 



