NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS. 113 



If a sporting gentleman was asked what was the best 

 make for speed and endurance of fatigue, he would pro- 

 bably describe his own figure as accurately as possible, and 

 that with the greatest appearance of candour, looking 

 around upon his fair or foul proportions, as it may happen. 

 In this there is abundance of encouragement ; and, indeed, 

 I am inclined to think that men go in almost all shapes, 

 excepting, perhaps, those of Geoffrey Hudson, Daniel 

 Lambert, and the Irish or any other giant. One of the 

 most active men I ever saw was Richmond, the black 

 pugilist, and he was knock-kneed to a deformity. Set 

 before me a man that is long from his hip downward, 

 closely ribbed up, and with powerful loins ; take care that 

 he be straight, and of the happy medium between slim and 

 stout ; let his muscles be of marble, and his sinews of steel. 

 Heavens, how the fellow will step out! And what tre- 

 mendous odds are half a foot in every step ! See with 

 what an elastic spring he recovers his legs ! I swear by 

 Atalanta and Achilles, the swift of foot, that this is the 

 man I would back to go right up the Andes without deviat- 

 ing an iota from the straight line. I must add, however, 

 that his lungs should be pre-eminent, because in long runs 

 (say of six or seven miles at a stretch), through bogs and 

 over mountains, wind will be found an article most par- 

 ticularly in demand. After all, a man should be trained in 

 the way he should go as soon as he is out of petticoats ; if 

 not, the symmetry of the Antinous will avail him nought. 

 I have not the slightest doubt, indeed, but that Pan would 

 have caught Daphne much sooner than Apollo. He would 

 have made a much better run, and probably a better thing 

 of it altogether. 



Now, this is all very well ; but your consummate deer- 

 stalker should not only be able to run like an antelope, and 

 breathe like the trade winds, but should also be enriched 

 with various other undeniable qualifications. As, for 

 instance, he should be able to run in a stooping position, at 

 a greyhound pace, with his back parallel to the ground, and 

 his face within an inch of it, for miles together. He should 

 take a singular pleasure in threading the seams of a bog, 

 or in gliding down a burn, venire a terre* like that insinuat- 



