FRENCH HORSEMANSHIP 283 



Chantilly, has the reputation of being a sort of residuary 

 legatee of the ' grandes fa9ons ' to which I alluded in the 

 last chapter. I can offer no opinion on his woodcraft. As 

 I have already said, the strict ' laissez-faire ' principles of 

 French hunting and the colourless conditions of riding ' to 

 hounds in these large forests give httle opportunity to the 

 huntsman of singHng himself out, and a stranger is hardly 

 competent to appreciate the niceties of scientific venery. 

 Even on an average day, every huntsman in this country 

 has at least one or two chances of signalising himself by 

 some cast of daring talent, luck, or folly, or by the successful 

 liberties which he takes with a clever horse and forbidding 

 obstacles. Indeed, to professional or amateur alike, the con- 

 ditions of an English country make a day's hunting a ' carriere 

 ouverte aux talents.' Thus Snob's plucky horsemanship and 

 the little bay cocktail get him asked to dinner by the Melton 

 swells wdth whom he tries conclusions in the famous pages 

 of the 'Quarterly.' In the alleys and carrefours of a French 

 forest he could not have hoped to enjoy so pleasant a recog- 

 nition of his performances. 



Hurvari wears, I believe, with perfect professional pro- 

 priety, long and flowing whiskers of the old Piccadilly weeper 

 sort. His style was decorous to the point of frigidity. He 

 belongs, I should imagine, to the older school, which looks 

 upon the horse as a mere means of getting about. Hurvari 

 was riding the only really well-bred hunt horse I saw ; but the 

 animal seemed very stale, and they never abandoned a trot. 

 His mind seemed singularly unclouded by enthusiasm. To 

 make up for this, M. Lebaudy and one of the piqueux never 

 stopped galloping from point to point, crossing and recrossing 

 each other incessantly, M. Lebaudy addressing abrupt inter- 



' I remember reading in a hunting classic of a French huntsman who 

 told an English visitor, when they arrived together at a bank and ditch, that 

 it was no part of his bond to jump. Mr. Beckford — for I think it is in his book 

 — is highly indignant about it ; but after all we all shrink from the unfamiliar. 



