314 HUNTING. 



are left open and cause great inconvenience to their 

 owners. If a lady is the last to pass through a gate 

 when hunting, she should always remember to shut 

 it. Men are often far greater culprits than women at 

 gates, apart from their holloaing propensities. Many 

 men seem to regard the sport as provided for them 

 alone, and look upon my sex as being in the hunting 

 field on sufferance. Most of us have met the entirely 

 selfish male who gallops up to a gate, rushes through 

 it and lets it bang behind him, well knowing that a 

 lady is making for the same means of exit, and is only 

 a few lengths away. 



Considering that women pay for their hunting and 

 are not on the free list, it seems rather superfluous 

 for men to assure them that they do not object to 

 their presence in the hunting field, an announcement 

 which appears in print so often that it sounds like 

 protesting too much. We never hear of hunting- 

 women recording the fact that they do not object 

 to the presence of men : even ladies who carry the 

 horn themselves are free from prejudice in this 

 respect. Hunting men, in assuring us of their dis- 

 tinguished toleration, almost appear to copy each other 

 in their charming manner of expressing that fact. 

 For instance, Whyte Melville says : " Far be it from 

 me to assert that the field is no place for the fair ; 

 on the contrary, I hold that their presence adds in 

 every respect to its charms." Then why does he 

 suggest such a thing ? Captain Elmhirst assures us 

 that he is '' one of those who, far from cavilling selfishly 



