232 STRAY -AW AYS 



outside-car, possibly even, if the day were inclement 

 and the scene the County Cork, from the purdah-like 

 depths of the family inside-car, or jingle. My first 

 remembered day with hounds was, however, a remark- 

 able variant of the accepted rule, and is, for that 

 reason, worthy of record. A bagged fox was to be 

 " shaken," and to me, unworthy member of the 

 unworthier sex, befell the pony (whose age, sixteen, 

 just doubled mine), while my brother, of somewhat 

 tenderer years, it is true, drove to the meet upon 

 an outside car, in tears and a black spotted net veil. 

 The veil was enforced by the nursery authority, in 

 deference to a " stye " in his eye ; the tears were 

 the natural result of this outrage upon masculine 

 dignity. It is recorded that the little boy, still, like 

 a heroine of old romance, weeping and closely veiled, 

 held a corner of the bag during the ceremony of 

 releasing the fox from it, but this alleviation was 

 entirely outweighed by the fact that his sister, for 

 reasons not specially apparent, was subsequently 

 given the brush, and bore it back to the nursery in 

 offensive triumph. 



It is because of its remarkable foreshadowing of 

 the future that the incident has been rescued from 

 oblivion. It is now the girl of the family who rides 

 to hounds, seriously and consistently, and, when her 

 brothers return for the Christmas holidays, gravely 

 debates with the groom as to whether the pony will 

 be " too much for the young gentlemen." It is 

 melancholy to relate that the young gentlemen are, 

 as often as not, singularly unselfish in the matter of 

 the pony, and are more especially so when a day's 

 shooting is the alternative. The heart of the Flapper 

 is as yet untainted by the rival attraction of the 

 gun, and, so remarkable has been the progress of 

 emancipation, I have even known of hunting govern- 



