CHAPTER XLII1 



DIGGING-OUT 



So ingrained, as it were, is the love of sport in the 

 average Englishman, and so kindly does he take to 

 sport of any kind which opportunity may throw in 

 his way, however unfitted his previous training may 

 have been, that it is not to be wondered at that at 

 times he talks something nearly approaching to 

 nonsense when giving his opinion on intricate 

 subjects in connection with the sport he affects 

 or takes an interest in. It is by no means an un- 

 common occurrence to hear a man whose Turf ex- 

 periences may be counted almost by months instead 

 of years give an opinion on a subject with all the 

 authority of an expert which a man of experience 

 like Mr. Matthew Dawson would speak about in 

 carefully-guarded terms. But perhaps there is no 

 sport about which ex parte opinions are aired with 

 such assumption of knowledge, not to say superi- 

 ority, by those who have really little knowledge of 

 the subject, as fox-hunting. Nor is this difficult 

 to comprehend, for perhaps there is no sport which 

 is so popular of which so little is really known by 

 the rank and file of those who follow it, and to 

 realise this one only has to stand by the covert side 

 at some favourite fixture and listen to the crowd, 

 who ought to be attending to the business in hand, 



