IN THE FIELD. 311 



of more help to him than the loudest and clearest 

 view holloa that ever wakened the dead, ' from the 

 lungs of John Peel in the morning.' " 



As this chapter is written with the desire to help 

 the inexperienced huntress, she will, I feel sure, be 

 grateful to the writers who have advised her what 

 not to do, so we will study the next complaint which 

 comes from that experienced sportsman Captain 

 Elmhirst, who describes a hunting run better, I 

 think, than any other writer on the subject. He 

 says : " When ladies cast in their lot with the rougher 

 sex, lay themselves out to share in all the dangers 

 and discomforts incidental to the chase, and even 

 compete for honours in the school of fox-hunting, 

 they should in common fairness be prepared to accept 

 their position on even terms, nor neglect to render 

 in some degree mutual the assistance so freely at their 

 command, and that men in a Leicestershire field so 

 punctiliously afford to each other. The point on 

 which they so prominently fail in this particular is, 

 to speak plainly, their habitual, neglect — or incapacity 

 — at gateways. Given the rush and crush of three 

 hundred people starting for a run and pressing eagerly 

 through a single way of exit — to wit, an ordinary 

 gate swinging easily and lightly, and requiring only 

 that each passer through should by a touch hinder 

 its closing after him or her. Of these three hundred, 

 in all probability thirty are ladies ; and I commit 

 myself to the statement that not more than five of 

 that number will do their share towards preserving 



