Related article: individually, collectively and socially, that it is easy to believe everybody conduces towards it, and in different ways and through different channels, benefits through its enjoyments. A man comes into a county with his six or eight hunters ; he has to either take or hire house for his family, stables and rooms for horses and grooms, buy his hay, oats and straw from the nearest farmer ; his household expenses also are distributed amongst the local tradesmen, and during the four months of his season doubtless he enriches all of his poorer neigh- bours. He subscribes handsomely to the fund which is collected, in a great measure, to compensate land -holders and tenants for broken fences and other damages sustained by the galloping of horses and hounds over lands in the radius of the hunt. Now comes Mrs. Brown Wig, who has heard a great noise in her hen-roost caused by Mr. Brush, who, scenting from afar her young poultry, has called, hoping with the help of Mrs. Brown Brush to quietly select the fattest to take home, and add to the stock there. Mrs. Brown Wig is simply furious, and writes a note to the M.F.H., who is also indignant at the outrage done to a kind neighbour, so he takes the hounds over in the direction of Mrs. Brown Wig*s farm, or house, lays them on, and eventually breaks up that vile old Mr. Brush, perhaps also Mrs. Brown Brush. This piece of kindness on the part of Jthe M.F.H. is usually followed up at the end of the season by a cheque being sent to comp>ensate Mrs. Wig for her losses. So, you see, the M.F.H. benefits by the information conveyed to him by Mrs. Wig, as also do all who follow the hunt, and so does Mrs. Wig in the result of the cheque ; thus mutual good- will is engen- dered, and sport promoted and enjoyed by all ; except perhaps by Mr. Brush, who by the way, has already enjoyed his share ot sport at the farm-yard or hen-roost, and as all of us have our day, so he ends his by giving a good run and dying gallantly. Then think how horses and hounds look forward to the hunt- ing days: how many horses, through excitement, will not touch a meal on a hunting morning ? See their delight when they recognise the cheery voice of their master coming to mount them; look at the fire in their eyes ; see them cock their ears, and listen for the first sound of horn, or hound, and watch the noblest of animals put his heatt into the break away of hounds out of covert, and then say if he too does not enjoy sport and long to be first in it ! Look, too, at the faces of the field as they settle down to a gallop — all enjoyment — but one and all ap- preciating the same in their neighbours; watch also how a true sportsman is anxious to help his neighbour when in difficulties; how the fellowship of noble sport lifts up the mind beyond the ordi- nary things and ways of life ; and see how many long-lived friend- ships have been made and con- tinued simply from a kindred love between man and man for horse and hound. It would be almost impossible I899-] ATTRACTION'S AXD ADVANTAGES OF SPORT. 197 to draw a line showing where the advantages of true sport end and the good it does. Take the vast number of serv^ants employed in hunting, and the enormous amount the sum total of their wages comes to during a season. Then again, the sums paid to the shoeing-smith, the saddler and the farmer — it is sport they rely upon, it is sport they all love, as Buy Cheap Shatavari witness them out at the meets on foot and on old crocks. I once saw a coster monger drive to a meet a splendid team of tandem donkeys, aye, and good 'uns they were, and went well, and right royally was the driver welcomed. There is an instance of love and sport and kindness combined, proved by the good condition of the donkeys and the delight of their owner. The beautiful lines of Whyte- Melville come to my mind, show- ing how deeply rooted a love can be engendered between man and beast when he wrote at the death of his favourite hunter : — " For never roan had friend more enduring to the end. Truer mate in eveiv turn of time and tide. Cuuld I ihink we'd meet again, it would lighten half my pain, At the place where the old horse died." Then let us take a look in on a shooting-party as another most sociable and enjoyable, if not a profitable, class of sport. Where can you find a better welcome than in an old country house, with its hospitable and genial host and hostess ? The frank friendship of men to whom you have upon your arrival, only then been introduced ? This sport is no doubt the more sociable of any other, except perhaps yachting, because shooters are always within speaking distance of one another, and at luncheon time seated under a hedge with the game that has been bagged laid out before you, and fir^t one gun and then another, telling a story as to what he did on such and such a day, brings out the witty retort, or the hearty laugh which promotes good fellowship. Fish- ing is more selfish, inasmuch as two men often start out together and never meet again till their return home, when they relate — more or less truthfiilly — the ^port they have enjoyed, ft>r it is a strange fact that fishers are won- derful story-tellers, and they have the more licence owing to having been alone, and not having been seen in the adventures they re- count. Shooters have not the same chance and perforce have to be more accurate. I have known a man shoot all day very well, and at luncheon state that few of the birds shot had been even aimed at by him, though the neighbouring guns were quite willing to allow him his share of success. This sort of Shot is not seldom met, and is far and away preferable to the one who, by his hints, wishes you to believe that he has killed most of the bag. He generally gets his snub, and, by sorely-bought experience, learns better manners and becomes more truthful. This is the social aspect of the sport of shooting. It teaches good discipline, patience, steadi- ness and temper. Take duck- shooting, or punling for duck — where can you find a greater trial of nerve, pluck and patience, than this sport ? I have met men accustomed to tiger shooting, to elephant slaying, to stalking of