SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 403 



CHAPTER XL VII. 



' ' But if the rougher sex by this fierce sport 

 Is hurried wild, let not such horrid joy 

 E'er stain the bosom of the British fair. 

 Far be the spirit of the chase from them ! 

 Uncomely courage, unbeseeming skill, 

 To spring the fence, to run the prancing steed : 

 The cap, the whip, the masculine attire, 

 In which they roughen to the sense ; and all 

 The winning softness of their sex is lost. " 



A clear stage Clearing a pack and five-barred gate Pressing hounds 

 Thoroughbred hunters no novelty Short and bang tails 

 Ladies in the hunting-field. 



AT present we are treating of the duties which the 

 "field" owe to the master and his hounds; here- 

 after we may discuss the forbearance they ought to 

 exhibit towards each other. We lay this down as a 

 rule absolute, recognised by every true sportsman, 

 that no man is justified in riding so close upon the 

 line of the pack as to interfere with their just prero- 

 gative of doing their proper business in a proper 

 way. If a man cannot ride to hounds without rid- 

 ing after them that is, in their wake he is bound 

 to give the last hounds both time and space to clear 

 every fence before he puts his horse at it. Nervous 

 riders are always in an absurd fuss about this very 

 thing, and why ? Hounds don't run now, if they 

 ever did, in a long extended line of half a mile, when 

 it might be imagined that the leading couples would 



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