FOX-nUNTING. 79 



to hear what has been done. But it is to a different class — the 

 class that, as a reporter of a daily paper once said to me, 

 "straddles a horse and rides" — that fox-hunting appeals most 

 strongly, and, with all honour to England be it said, it matters 

 not whether it is the tradesman, who can get his one day a week 

 on the nag which takes out his goods, the farmer, who has a 

 promising young one in his stables, the professional man, who 

 steals an hour or two when he can from his business, or the 

 nobleman or millionaire, with his stud of five and twenty fliers 

 — one and all are fond of fox-hunting, and regard it as the 

 ne i^lus ultra of earthly enjoyment. I believe the true reason of 

 this is, as Eeckford's friend said, because in fox-hunting " you 

 can ride harder and do less harm " than in any other kind of 

 sport. Probably he had never seen a deer turned out, or ridden 

 a drag, or he would have altered his opinion ; but he was 

 certainly right in what I may term natural sport. Take an 

 average of days, and you may gallop faster and jump more 

 fences with fox-hounds than with anything else, and do less 

 mischief. Moreover, it has the advantage of being easily acces- 

 sible to all. The fox is so well preserved now, and packs of 

 hounds have so increased, that it is hard to find the man, let his 

 tent be pitched where it may, who cannot get his two or three 

 days a week without much trouble or going long journeys. 

 Moreover, he can go out and have his gallop, return home again, 

 and earn a great deal of real enjoyment without knowing or 

 caring anything about hunting. If he will only hold his tongue, 

 and has wit enough to pull up when well-known men do so, he 

 may hunt all his life without its ever being detected that he is not 

 a veritable Solon in Venerie. With either wild deer or hare, the 

 proceedings are apt to become at times slow and uninteresting 

 to any one (even when good sport is shown) who has not some 

 knowledge of hounds and woodcraft ', but with fox-hounds, where 

 the huntsman is a quick one and foxes plentiful, most have 

 enough to do without troubling their heads about either fox or 

 hounds. 



