40 "soldier, sir." i'm an officer. 



or music, why go hunting or to the Opera ? Unen- 

 lightened savages! you might as well ask why the 

 hopeful youth who d — s the parade or field-day goes 

 into the Army. Strip the jacket, shako, sabretache, 

 and other accoutrements of their lace — make the 

 dress to look like service and service only — infandum 

 puer, the Cornet's "occupation's gone" at once: he 

 would quit the Army in disgust. So, let "meets" 

 be at seven instead of eleven, and consequently let a 

 few fashionable men make some other amusement 

 fashionable, Dillesdon and Kirby Gate would only 

 boast oi' perhaps fifty sportsmen : let the boxes at the 

 Opera be so constructed as to render its visitants in- 

 visible, and the stage only to be seen from them, the 

 house would in one month be like " some banquet hall 

 deserted." To suppose men hunt from the love of 

 hunting, frequent the Opera from the love of music, 

 or enter the Army from the love of a soldier's life, are 

 all ideas too monstrous to be entertained by any man 

 who is not a subject for the Han well Asylum. 



Racing I have heard anathematised by men who 

 discourage it as the height of cruelty. This is quite 

 wrong. That there is a certain degree of cruelty 

 practised in this as well as in all the pursuits of 

 sporting men, we must not deny: but I should say, 

 that, generally speaking, less takes place in this than 

 in most sports. Doubtless the labours of the race- 

 horse in full work are great and severe, and a horse 

 under the hands of the Chifneys is pretty sure of 

 Gfettino- his full dose of it. But we must recollect he 

 is bjought to this by degrees, and when he comes to 

 the post, though he may generally expect severe ex- 

 ertion and sometimes severe punishment, both the 

 one and the other are of very short duration, and the 



