6 SPORTING OF THE PAST 



a gallop, come home, or perhaps go out to a grand 

 luncheon ; lounge down to their club, or do a few 

 calls, then dine, and go to one of the theatres 

 to see the last new thing ; finish up with a supper 

 or a ball, or perhaps both. 



Old Squire Broadfurrow has ridden his stout, 

 easy-going hack to cover, has had a clinking day, 

 and a fox run into, as the crow flies, about eight- 

 ancl-twenty miles from his home. The old man, 

 nothing daunted, jogs quietly along and pulls up at 

 the first country inn, orders a chop for himself and 

 a bucket of gruel for his horse, gets home in good 

 time to entertain three or four choice souls at 

 dinner, ride the run over again, and talk of some 

 shooting they are going to have on the morrow. 

 Eeader, which is the pleasanter style of the two ? 

 which the most healthy ? Railways and hunting 

 I cannot reconcile with my ideas of sport ; there is 

 a sort of cockney ism about it that I do not like ; it 

 seems to me poor " form." 



Men change, too, in their ideas as well as their 

 dress. I was talking some time ago to an old 

 friend of mine who had been an inveterate fox- 

 hunter, did his six days a week, and spent the 

 seventh in the kennel ; if you asked him what 

 Sunday it was, you always got the same answer, 

 " Infliction Sunday." 



