AN ORTHODOX SPORTSMAN. 2] 5 



emulation in the field at home, and to show the 

 illiberal and uninformed the fallacy of their ideas, 

 that true pluck and high courage only exist where 

 roast beef is at a premium. A Frenchman is no 

 fox-hunter: he does not, nor as yet cannot, enter 

 into the spirit of it ; but those must have remained 

 at their mamma's side all their 'lives, who would 

 attribute any failure in anything on the part of a 

 Frenchman, or indeed any foreigner, to any lack 

 of personal courage. 



I have said that I would as soon ride a post- 

 horse an airing as a job-hunter with hounds : such 

 is my feeling ; but I am quite aware it is not that 

 of a true sportsman, or true fox-hunter. I doubt 

 my being either at heart; for the man who makes 

 the great pleasure of hunting to consist in riding 

 fine or neat horses, with as neat bridles and sad- 

 dles, does not show, in the first rank, as a true 

 sportsman. Now, our truly orthodox writer in the 

 " Sporting Magazine," Acteon, is every inch a 

 sportsman, every half-inch a fox-hunter ; his heart 

 and soul are in his hounds and their hunting ; he 

 would ride in a balloon, if he could see his hounds 

 hunt, or would ride a butcher's hack rather than 

 not see hounds at all, and, in truth, few men can 

 screw a queer one across a country better, or as 

 well as he can. All those who know him, only 

 wish him a stud as good as he could ride, a pack 

 as good as he could hunt : and if I could com- 



