14 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



has alwa3^s gone hand in hand with them. To that ntter 

 neglect of any exercises which call out fortitude, patience, self- 

 dependence, and daring, I attribute a great deal of the low 

 sensuality, the conceited vulgarity, the high want of the sense 

 of honour which is increasing just now among the middle 

 classes, and from which the navigator, the engineer, the miner, 

 and the sailor are comparatively free." 



Happily we are drifting at express speed from those times, 

 and hunting amongst those who can afford it, and athletic exer- 

 cises for those who cannot, become daily more popular. 



This brings me to another advantage the chase has over 

 other sports, viz., that it is free to all. Deer-stalking, as I said 

 above, may rival it in calling forth our greatest energies, but 

 who amongst us can afford if? A very, very small percentage of 

 even what are known as the wealthy classes can rent a deer 

 forest. But the man who keeps but one horse can have, at any 

 rate, an occasional day with the hounds. I was much amused 

 a few seasons ago by a traveller in the grocery business, who 

 contrived to take his country rounds for orders on horseback, 

 and also contrived that his journeys should be made in the 

 direction and on the days when hounds met, as often as pos- 

 sible. How that man enjoyed himself, to be sure, and how 

 often he was blown up for being just in the very place he should 

 not have been, yet I could have taken my hat off to him. A 

 sportsman in practice he certainly was not, yet I much doubt 

 if, out of the three or four hundred men who four times in the 

 week met those hounds,, a truer one at heart could have been 

 found. I trust his gallops may add years to his life, as most likely 

 they will. Here was a man with no more chance of pursuing 

 any other sport than he had of becoming prime minister, able 

 to enjoy the chase, if not to his heart's content, at least to a 

 pretty good extent. 'No one sport brings all classes together like 

 the chase, if we except perhaps the cricket-field. It is the cause 

 of very few bickerings and heartburnings, and in its pursuit 

 scarcely any interests clash. In fact, everything connected 



