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