Horse Companionship 281 



rider to hounds can commit. I have heard such offenders 

 given the severest verbal drubbings I ever listened to. I 

 remember hearing a perfect climax of rage and fury in this 

 respect once at a meet in England, when one of these jeal- 

 ous hard-riding scoundrels actually ran his horse into a hound 

 at the covert-side. The Master jumped off his horse. He 

 could evidently deliver himself better standing. " Take 

 yourself out of the hunt ! " he cried. " You did this same 

 thing once before. I ought to throw you into the river. 

 Hounds running ? You are a liar, sir ! " (The fox had 

 been viewed away, but hounds were not yet on the line.) 

 " You fool ! You don't know enough to be out hunting. 

 You don't know enough to know when hounds are run- 

 ning. Pay for the hound ? You insulting puppy, you 

 have n't money enough to compensate for the injury to that 

 poor hound." (Two men were carrying the howling 

 hound to a friend's carriage.) " Get out of my sight, you 

 miserable good-for-nothing, and all your kind. Go hire a 

 race-track and ride your fill. You don't know the ABC 

 of hunting, and you never will. Leave my sight and this 

 field instantly, sir, or the hounds go straight back to ken- 

 nels. This is your second offence, sir, inside of a fortnight. 

 You can't hold your horse ? Then shoot him, sir ! Such 

 brutes ought never to be permitted to come hunting. 

 Any one but a fool would have had sense enough to know 

 it. Go home and shoot him. And then shoot yourself 

 rather than again be seen in a hunting-field. You are dis- 

 graced for life. You and all your kind are the curse of 

 hunting. You kill sport. You know neither how to 

 hunt nor how to ride." It was quite the worst talk- 



