276 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



unities. You will encounter and recognise what I mean 

 in a stage-coachinan, 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 fellows- 

 craftsmen, which jumps to your 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 

 pictm-esque 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 Httle boy, and enjoyed 

 the usual outdoor opportunities of EngHsh 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 



