HEARSAY. 153 



school they represent or the art they demonstrate. An 

 on (h't-mcd\ fulfils a very important function in society. 

 I don't think that his fellow males regard him greatly — 

 thouo-h womenkind deli2:ht in him, and to them he is in- 

 valuable. He is the essential oil of their social gatlier- 

 inirs — whether these take the form of " little dinners " or 

 the lower grade of small tea-parties. " He knov,^s so 

 much about people, and has such a pleasant way of 

 communicating it ; " and so will keep a whole table 

 amused, upon topics in which tliey can all display an 

 interest. He has a role to perform, a character to main- 

 tain — and he is not going to mar the one or lose the 

 other for lack of information. It is nobody's duty — and 

 scarcely anybody's inclination — to " give him the lie " 

 when he trips gaily and pleasantly over the bounds of 

 truth into the fascinating fields of fiction. And the mis- 

 chief he does is worthy of the master who prompts him. 



But hearsay of a different kind — and in a sense quite 

 opposed to that of chance gleaning from stray utterance 

 — that is to say, information acquired on a particular 

 subject from a practical mind striving only to convey 

 facts — should suffer little by having to be committed to 

 writing by a middleman. A^et I believe there is no topic 

 under the sun on which it is more difficult to arrive at 

 satisfactory detail and estimate at the mouth of others 

 than a run with hounds. (Of my own shortcomings in 

 this direction as narrator and commentator I am fully, 

 honestly, and lamentably conscious.) A very flist run is 

 seen but by a very few — even in this essentially hard- 

 riding country. Those few are up in their stirrups ; have 



