PUPPIES. 165 



ride hunting a very fair sprinkling of the latter, and 

 it is chiefly among these that we hear the complaint 

 that the run is never fast enough or severe enough to 

 please them, insinuating by this that both themselves 

 and their horses are so superior that what is great 

 to others is bagatelle to them. You will hear such 

 chrysalides pretending to abuse their horse : if he 

 happens to put down his head, they will give him 

 a rap across the ears with their whip, with " hold up 

 brute," to show how little they think of 300^. ; or, 

 " come up, you old cripple ;" or, after a brilliant run, 

 " my old screw went like bricks to-day." These are 

 the sort of gentry that had better stay at home, in- 

 stead of the farmers ; that is, so long as the latter 

 conduct themselves inoffensively. The sort of men 

 I allude to are pests to Masters of Hounds : they are 

 always doing some harm, and don't know how to do 

 good. It is quite proper that Almack's or a Drawing- 

 room should both be exclusive. But fox-hunting is 

 intended for fox-hunters, be they who they may, so 

 long as they conduct themselves like sportsmen in 

 their several grades of life : yet I am aware there is 

 an esprit du corps among a certain clique that would, 

 if it could, render fox-hunting exclusive also. But in 

 this clique you would never find such names as Dar- 

 lington, Alvanley, Kinnaird, Drumlanrig, Wilton, 

 Howth, Maidstone, Forester, Wyndham, Smith, Oliver, 

 Peel, and a hundred other light and welter weights : 

 these are really horsemen and sportsmen : they go 

 the pace it is true, and an awful pace they do go ; 

 and why ? because they must do so to be in their 

 place, and in their place they will be ; but it does not 

 follow that they would not like, by way of variety, 

 to sometimes see a little more huntino- and less racing, 



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