120 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



that hunting and riding to hounds, or after them, 

 find an increasing number of votaries every year. 

 If any proof of this were required, we have it in 

 the number of packs of staghounds which are to 

 be found in the country, and which seem certainly 

 to be on the increase. 



Nowadays, when a man has made money, and 

 looks round for some means of recreation, it is a 

 common thing to find him buy a few horses and 

 commence riding to hounds, especially if he has 

 not passed what Dante calls " the middle house of 

 life." The large fields which we see in every 

 popular country are considerably recruited from 

 the ranks of business men — men who have had 

 little opportunity during their earlier years of 

 obtaining that practice in riding which is neces- 

 sary to the making of the finished horseman, and 

 yet men who generally acquit themselves with 

 credit, and occasionally with distinction. This 

 everyday experience, I think, is sufficient to show 

 that to Englishmen, Scots, and Irishmen alike, 

 horsemanship somehow comes by instinct. 



Yet it is not a little curious that this instinct is 

 very seldom systematically cultivated, that practice 

 is frequently deemed sufficient to make perfect 

 horsemen, and that most men " tumble " them- 

 selves into the ranks of the good performers. It 

 is all very well to a lad whose ancestors have from 

 time immemorial lived, as it were, in the saddle, 

 to chuck him on to a pony without stirrups to 

 his saddle, and say, " Now, mind you don't part 

 company." That plan, or want of plan, answers 

 well enough with a youngster who has oppor- 

 tunities of riding in every holidays ; but it is not 

 the way which should be adopted, and which, by 



