'NOT THE WOMAN'S PLACE' 233 



esses who took the field witli their charges, and were 

 the envy and admiration of those parents not possessed 

 of so undaunted a deputy. 



I have seen an old book on hunting which, in 

 advocating the presence of The Fair Sex at a meet, 

 offered, apologetically, the reason that such an 

 intrusion would enable them " to exhibit becoming 

 costumes, and would fit them to talk agreeably 

 and with intelligence to the gentlemen after dinner." 

 That was in 1830, or thereabouts ; nearly a century 

 ago, and a century that has, perhaps, done more 

 to turn the world upside down than any of its 

 predecessors. 



Inevitably, as one ponders upon the changed locale 

 of " the woman's place," the stupendous revolution 

 brought about by the War comes to mind. Sports, 

 as sports, have temporarily gone under. The muscle, 

 the nerve, the vitality that they bred in women have 

 been applied in other spheres, and in many munition 

 works and hospitals have proved their value. 



Hunting, alone among sports, serves a positive 

 national need. At the beginning of the War it is 

 no exaggeration to say that the Hunts saved the 

 situation as far as the cavalry was concerned, and 

 the Army, while it demanded the men and horses 

 that hunting had created, and by whom hunting 

 lived, moved, and had its being, illogically insisted 

 that hounds must be kept going and that cavalry 

 remounts must not fail. Thus it came about that 

 " the woman's place," as often as not, was, neces- 

 sarily the stables, and lady-masters and lady-grooms 

 laid the axe to the root of a long-cherished monopoly. 

 Not one, but many Hunts must, during the bad 

 years, have gone under, were it not that their Masters' 

 wives and daughters, instead of throwing their arms 

 round their men " to bid them stay," as laid down 



