FIELD SPORTS ON CHARACTER 5 



in the end to kill his horse or lose his chance of 

 seeing the run ; and on the other hand, he who, 

 when the hounds are running, shirks an awkward 

 fence or leaves his straight course to look for a 

 gate, is tolerably certain to find himself several 

 fields behind at the finish. " What sort of a man 



to hounds is Lord A ? " we once heard it 



asked of a good judge. " Oh, a capital sportsman 

 and rider," was the answer ; " never larks, but will 

 go at a haystack if the hounds are running." 



It is partly from the necessity of self-dependence 

 which the fox-hunter feels, that his sport is open 

 to the accusation that it tends to selfishness. The 

 true fox-hunter is alone in the midst of the crowd ; 

 he has his own interests solely at heart — each for 

 himself, is his motto, and the pace is often too 

 good for him to stop and help a neighbour in a 

 ditch, or catch a friend's runaway horse. He has 

 no partner, he plays no one's hand except his own. 

 This of course only applies to the man who goes 

 out hunting, eager to have a run and keen to be in 

 at the death. If a man rides to the meet with a 

 pretty cousin, and pilots her for the first part of a 

 run, he probably pays more attention to his charge 

 than to his own instincts of the chase ; but he is 

 not on this occasion purely fox-hunting ; and, if a 

 true Nimrod, his passion for sport will overcome 

 his gallantry, and he will probably not be sorry 

 I B 



