276 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



unities. You will encounter and recognise what I mean 

 in a stage-coachman, or a shikari in the Himalayas ; in a 

 cricketer or a waiter ; in a gondolier or in a jockey — some- 

 thing which distinguishes the individual from his fellow- 

 craftsmen, which jumps to j'our eyes and your brain and 

 makes you say, ' This is the real thing.' I admit it may be 

 an external, that often, like many ideals, things are not what 

 they seem. The apparent Crichton breaks down in practice; 

 the bright particular star gives no better light than the 

 meaner people of the skies. But I am only laying stress on 

 externals, and, tried by that test, I saw no La Trace during 

 my stay in France. The eternal principles of French venerie 

 — once the pack has settled to a deer — seem to offer but few 

 opportunities of emerging from a mere character part ; and 

 the professional huntsmen I saw made none for themselves. 

 At his best the huntsman appeared to be a mounted and 

 picturesque master of the ceremonies, the Lord High 

 Chamberlain of the Forest ; at his worst he is a peasant 

 or a stableman dressed up in an opera-comique attire. 



Although Arthur Young was given a white pony and a 

 pointer and a gun when he was quite a little boy, and enjoyed 

 the usual outdoor opportunities of English country life, I do 

 not think he ever quite liked hunting. Possibly he could 

 not have loved farming so well had he done so. 



When he went to France he was shocked at ' the mis- 

 chievous animation of a vast hunt ' which the great properties 

 exhibited, at the sovereignty of the game, and the privileges 

 of the capitaineries. ' The crop of this country,' he said of 

 the district round Senlis and Chantilly, ' is princes of the 

 blood — that is to say, hares, pheasants, deer, and boars.' He 

 is always noting and regretting the absence of farm buildings 

 and farming energies. At the expense of his political 

 economy, a cowhouse at Chanteloup gives him more satis- 

 faction than Conde's hunting stables at Chantilly with their 



