A Sportsman at Large 185 



I heard one who rated herself a first-rate, all-round sports- 

 woman, skilled with both gun and rod, and who vaunted her 

 exploits in the hunting field vaingloriously, giving a lurid 

 description of the " blood-curdling and revolting " cruelty, as 

 viewed from the terrace at Monte Carlo, what time the 

 pigeon-shooting contests were in progress. Her diatribes 

 might have borne some weight had she not, almost in the 

 same breath, " given the show away " when, in relating her 

 prowess in " the great run " with a certain Leicestershire pack, 

 she boasted of how she had ridden two horses to death on that 

 occasion. Is not a game and gallant horse of more value 

 than a whole loft of pigeons ? 



Having indulged in these cursory remarks I must pass on 

 to actualities ; since these rambling reminiscences would be 

 incomplete were I not to chronicle my experiences at the traps ; 

 for at one time I was bang in the thick of the game, and now 

 and then contrived to distinguish myself to some extent. 



Shortly after we had lost our beloved and blameless Dads, 

 I was stricken with diphtheria. Luckily it was not a very 

 virulent attack, so I was soon convalescent. This was in 

 February, when the weather, as is often the case, in that in- 

 clement month, was simply appalling. 



So taking the ever-ready Ted Jaquet with me, we set out 

 for the Riviera. This was my first experience of " The Sunny 

 South." I shall never forget my feelings of rapture when 

 awakening after a night spent in the bunk of a wagon-lit, 

 I drew up the blind. 



We had left Old Blighty wrapped in a snowy shroud, with a 

 keen north-east wind, making us shiver and wilt as it pene- 

 trated our thick fur coats, and found its way to our livers and 

 our very marrow. Now, the train was at rest at a small sta- 

 tion between Toulon and Cannes, prettily named " La Pauline." 

 The little station bell was tinkling musically and continually, 

 the sky was cloudless, the air balmy and the sunlight golden. 

 Flowering geraniums climbed all over the palings, w r hilst the 

 carefully laid-out beds displayed anemones, stocks, cyclamen 

 and primula all florescent. In the background was an orange 

 and lemon grove, the trees of which displayed their resplendent 

 fruits in abundance. (N.B. The blending gave me my idea for 



