192 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



but from the very fact that she has the intelligence 

 and energy to master a not very easy subject it 

 may be safely laid down that such of the duties of 

 life as fall to her lot will be efficiently and cheer- 

 fully performed. I have known hunting ladies 

 in different social positions who were fine horse- 

 women and accomplished sportswomen, who in 

 every relation of life were successful, respected, 

 and beloved. 



I knew one, the daughter of a farmer not too 

 well endowed with this world's goods, who used to 

 school her father's chasers, and school them to 

 some purpose too, and more than one persistent 

 refuser did she turn into a reliable jumper, thereby 

 bringing grist to the family mill. As a manager, 

 as a business woman, in the drawing-room, and as 

 a daughter and a wife, she was an example to many 

 of the effete school who look on the hunting 

 woman as masculine. 



A hunting lady whom I do not care to meet in 

 the field is the hard funker. She may not be 

 quite so bad as the bruising rider to whom I 

 have already referred, but she is by no means a 

 pleasant companion to have by your side when 

 hounds are running hard over a big country. She 

 goes at all her fences as hard as she can gallop, and 

 depend upon it that Assheton Smith's dictum, that 

 whoever rides very fast at a fence is funking it, is 

 true. This can only last so long, and it is sure to 

 end in the long run with a nasty fall if the horse 

 keeps on jumping. But generally this is what he 

 does not do. After going so far he refuses, 

 frequently just in front of you, and at one of 

 the few practicable places in the fence. You 

 have to pull your horse out of his stride, which, 



