168 HINTING IN THE MIDLANDS 



among us, and for the simple reason that salutary 

 as is the discipline of all field sports, that of hunt- 

 ing is so in the most eminent degree. " Eide 

 straight to hounds and talk as little as possible," 

 was the advice given by a veteran to a youngster 

 who was discussing the secret mode in which popu- 

 larity was to be secured ; and the sententious maxim 

 contains a great many grains of truth. English- 

 men admire performance, and without it they 

 despise words. Performance is the only thing 

 which in the hunting field meets with recognition 

 or sufferance, and the braggart is most inevitably 

 brought to his proper level in the course of a 

 burst of forty minutes across a good country. Again, 

 the hunting field is the most admirably contrived 

 species of discipline for the temper. Displays of 

 irritation or annoyance are promptly and effectively 

 rebuked ; and the man who cannot bear with 

 fitting humility the reprimand, when it is merited, 

 of the master or huntsman, will not have long 

 to wait for the demonstrative disapproval of his 

 compeers. 



Hunting has been classed amongst those sports 

 — detestata matrihus — by reason of the intrinsic risk 

 which it involves. Is it in any degree more dan- 

 gerous than cricket or football, sliooting or Alpine 

 climbing ? In Great Britain and Ireland there are 



