THE BAKBAEIANS 9 



and self-reliance, his sympathy of hand and eye, and his patience, 

 sometimes under conditions of risk such as never occur in any 

 mere game. Fortunately there are signs of reaction, though in a 

 somewhat unexpected quarter. These show themselves in the effort 

 to teach open-air life, observation, resource, etc., to boys from 

 elementary schools under the guise of " scouting," which has much 

 in common with field sport. Above that grade Education with a 

 capital E does nothing. This is a pity, although practical difficulties 

 can be freely acknowledged. Field sports occupy much space, while 

 all the games of all the boys can be played, under the eye of discipline 

 too, in one or two fair-sized flat grass-fields. 



None the less, except for humanitarian objections which will be 

 met and answered later, it would seem that from the point of view 

 of "character" the field sports of the Barbarians form at least as 

 good a school as the games of the Philistines. I will indeed venture 

 further, and say something of the character to which the former have 

 already attained in spite of their aloofness in our cold, miscompre- 

 hending little world. 



" These men are not vicious," said a man who knew, anent the 

 Barbarians, to another so deeply Philistine that he thought all hunt- 

 ing men went to Oxford. " They have been brought up to country 

 life, and while up here must find some outlet for their country tastes." 

 I must apologise to my brother Barbarians for printing the truism 

 with which this paragraph opens, but my point is that the Philistines 

 are abysmally ignorant in these matters, and I speak from experi- 

 ence, as I count several Philistines among my friends, and some of 

 them have at least a subconscious sentiment to the contrary. All 

 sport, at least all English sport, has a quality of horsiness ; horses 

 have a concern in horse-racing ; horse-racing is mixed up with the 

 ignoble herd of touts and sharpers, therefore all sport is tainted, and 

 they call it " Nehushtan," poor dears ! All sportsmen are not sharps 

 like Soapey Sponge, Jack Spraggon, or Sir Archibald Deepecarde, 

 nor flats such as Waffles or Sir 'Arry Scattercash, but natural 

 honest men like John Jorrocks, who in spite of his vulgarity and 

 "samples o' tea" was a good -hearted old fellow at bottom; or the 

 vastly superior hero of " Nimrod's " rather dull and humourless Life 



