NOT A HUNTING COUNTRY 263 



coffee-housing throng a holiday is, I should say, 

 far from the thoughts of the Master of Hounds 

 who is criticised, and exists, I should think, only 

 in the fertile brain of the critic. " Pony-carts, 

 bicycles, and foot people," we are told, " make up 

 the greater part of the field." Well, is that to be 

 imputed to the Master of Hounds as a crime ? I 

 trow not. I have seen some as good sportsmen in 

 traps, on bicycles, and on foot as ever I saw 

 clothed in all the glory of the war-paint at a crack 

 Midland fixture. Sometimes, it is true, the pony- 

 carts and the bicycles get into the way and head foxes, 

 and the stentorian voices of the foot people are an 

 injury to the sport they wish to aid. But I think 

 I have seen a scarlet-coated gentleman on a two- 

 hundred-guinea hunter head a fox upon occasion 

 when eager to secure a good start ; and who that 

 goes hunting does not know the warning cry, 

 " Give them a bit of room, gentlemen, do ! " 

 The question I want to ask is this : If people in 

 pony-carts, on bicycles, or on shanks' mare enjoy 

 hunting and its surroundings, is there any reason 

 why they should be deprived of their sport and 

 enjoyment to satisfy the prejudices of a shooting 

 man ? I can see only one answer to the question. 

 There exists no reason ; there can exist no reason 

 for such deprivation. Shooting, we know, is only 

 for the few, and in its essence there is something 

 of selfishness ; but sport exists for the many. If 

 it did not it would soon cease, and when people in 

 traps, on bicycles, and on foot behave themselves 

 fairly and don't spoil sport — and it is only fair to 

 say that it is generally through ignorance and 

 excitement that they err, as mounted friends do 

 upon occasion— I for one am always glad to see 



