LADIES 
 
 IN THE FIELD 
 
 EOITE 
 
 THE LADY GREVILLE 
 

 
 
TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 3 9090 013 407 313 
 
 JOHNA.SEAVERNS 
 
 Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 
 Cummir I of Veterinary Medicine at 
 
 Tufts. Un 
 
 200 \ noad 
 
 North Grafton, MA 01536 
 
B/. 
 
 
LADIES IN THE FIELD 
 
 Sketches of Sport 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 THE LADY GREVILLE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1894 
 
- 
 
 - 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It is scarcely necessary nowadays to offer an 
 apology for sport, with its entrancing excite- 
 ment, its infinite variety of joys and interests. 
 Women cheerfully share with men, hardships, 
 toil and endurance, climb mountains, sail on 
 the seas, face wind and rain and the chill 
 gusts of winter, as unconcernedly as they 
 once followed their quiet occupations by their 
 firesides. The feverish life of cities too, with 
 its enervating pleasures, is forgotten and 
 neglected for the witchery of legitimate 
 sport, which need not be slaughter or cruelty. 
 Women who prefer exercise and liberty, who 
 revel in the cool sea breeze, and love to feel 
 the fresh mountain air fanning their cheeks 
 
v Preface. 
 
 who are afraid neither of a little fatigue nor 
 of a little exertion, are the better, the truer, 
 and the healthier, and can yet remain essen- 
 tially feminine in their thoughts and manners. 
 They may even by their presence refine the 
 coarser ways of men, and contribute to the 
 gradual disuse of bad language in the hunting- 
 field, and to the adoption of a habit of courtesy 
 and kindness. The duties of the wife of the 
 M.F.H. fully bear out this view. 
 
 When women prove bright and cheerful 
 companions, they add to the man's enjoy- 
 ment and to the enlarging of their own 
 practical interests. When, in addition, they 
 endeavour to love Nature in her serenest and 
 grandest moods, to snatch from her mighty 
 bosom some secrets of her being, to study 
 sympathetically the habits of birds, beasts 
 and flowers, and to practise patience, skill, 
 ingenuity and self-reliance, they have learnt 
 valuable lessons of life. 
 
Preface. v 
 
 Lastly, in the words of a true lover of art : 
 " The sportsman who walked through the 
 turnip fields, thinking of nothing but his dog 
 and his gun, has been drinking in the love of 
 beauty at every pore of his invigorated frame, 
 as, from each new tint of autumn, from every 
 misty September morning, from each variety 
 of fleeting cloud, each flash of light from 
 distant spire or stream, the unnoticed in- 
 fluence stole over him like a breeze, bring- 
 ing health from pleasant places, and made 
 him capable of clearer thoughts and happier 
 emotions." 
 
 Violet Greville. 
 
C N T E N T S. 
 
 Riding in Ireland and India. 
 
 By the Lady Grevillc. 
 
 Hunting in the Shires. 
 
 Horses and Their Riders. 
 
 By The Duchess of Newcastle. 
 
 The Wife of the M. F. H. 
 
 By Mrs Chaworih Musters. 
 
 Fox-Hunting. .... 
 
 Team and Tandem Driving. . 
 
 By Miss Rosie Anstruthcr Thomson 
 
 Tigers I have Shot. . 
 
 By Mrs C. Martclli. 
 
 Rifle-Shooting. 
 
 By Miss Leale. 
 
 Deer-Stalking and Deer-Driving. . 
 
 By Diane Chasscresse. 
 
 Covert Shooting. 
 
 By Lady Boynton. 
 
 A Kangaroo Hunt. 
 
 By Mrs Jenkins. 
 
 Cycling. ..... 
 
 By Mrs E. R. Penncll. 
 
 Punting. .... 
 
 By Miss Sybil Salaman. 
 
 PAGH 
 1 
 
 29 
 61 
 
 71 
 
 89 
 105 
 
 143 
 
 157 
 
 173 
 
 197 
 233 
 
 245 
 2G7 
 
RIDING IN IRELAND AND 
 
 INDIA. 
 
LADIES IN THE FIELD. 
 
 BIDING IN IKELAND AND INDIA. 
 
 By the Lady Greville. 
 
 Of all the exercises indulged in by men 
 and women, riding is perhaps the most pro- 
 ductive of harmless pleasure. The healthful, 
 exhilarating feeling caused by rapid motion 
 through the air, and the sense of power 
 conveyed by the easy gallop of a good 
 horse, tends greatly to moral and physical 
 well-being and satisfaction. Eiding improves 
 the temper, the spirits and the appetite ; 
 black shadows and morbid fancies disappear 
 from the mental horizon, and wretched in- 
 deed must he be who can preserve a gloomy 
 or discontented frame of mind during a fine 
 run in a grass country, or even in a sharp, 
 
 brisk gallop over turfy downs. Such being 
 
 3 
 
4 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the case, no wonder that the numbers of 
 horsemen increase every clay, and that the 
 hunting field, from the select company of 
 a few country squires and hard-riding young 
 men, has developed into an unruly mob of 
 people, who ride over the hounds, crush 
 together in the gateways, and follow like a 
 flock of sheep through the gaps and over the 
 fences, negotiated by more skilful or cour- 
 ageous sportsmen. Women, too, have rushed 
 in where their mothers feared to tread. 
 Little girls on ponies may be seen holding 
 their own nobly out hunting, while Hyde 
 Park, during the season, is filled with fair, 
 fresh-looking girls in straw hats, covert coats 
 and shirts, driving away the cobwebs of dis- 
 sipation and the deleterious effects of hot 
 rooms by a mild canter in the early morning. 
 Unfortunately, though a woman never looks 
 better than on horseback, when she hnotvs 
 how to ride, the specimens one often en- 
 counters riding crookedly, all one side, to the 
 inevitable detriment of the horse's back, 
 bumping on the saddle like a sack of potatoes, 
 or holding on with convulsive effort to the 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 5 
 
 horse's mouth, are sufficient to create a holy 
 horror in the minds of reasonable spectators. 
 Park-riding is not difficult compared with 
 cross-country riding, yet how seldom do you 
 see it perfect ? To begin with, a certain 
 amount of horsemanship is absolutely neces- 
 sary. There must be art, and the grace 
 that conceals art ; there must be self-posses- 
 sion, quiet, and a thorough knowledge of the 
 horse you are riding. Take, for instance, a 
 fresh young hunter into the park for the first 
 time. He shies at the homely perambulator, 
 starts at the sound of cantering hoofs, is terri- 
 fied by a water-cart, maddened by the strains 
 of the regimental band, or the firing of the 
 guards at their matutinal drill, and finally 
 attempts to bolt or turn round as other 
 horses, careering along, meet and pass him in 
 a straggling gallop. If he backs, rears, kicks, 
 shies and stops short, or wheels round sud- 
 denly, with ears thrown back, his rider need 
 not be surprised. Horses cantering in every 
 direction disturb, distress and puzzle him. 
 On which side are the hounds ? he wonders. 
 Why does not his rider extend him ? Where 
 
6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 are the fences, and when will the fan begin ? 
 These, no doubt, are some of the thoughts 
 that pass through a well-bred hunter's mind, 
 for that horses do reason in their own peculiar 
 fashion I am convinced, and that they fully 
 recognise the touch and voice of the master, 
 no one can doubt who has noticed the differ- 
 ence in the behaviour of a hunter when 
 ridden by different persons. If the park 
 rider wishes for a pleasant conveyance I 
 should strongly recommend a hack, neither a 
 polo pony nor a cob. But where, oh where, 
 are perfect hacks to be found ? They should 
 be handsome, well-bred, not quite thorough- 
 bred, about 15*3, with fine shoulders, good 
 action, and, above all, perfect mouth and 
 manners. No Irish horse has manners, as a 
 rule, until he comes to England, or has the 
 slightest idea of bending and holding himself, 
 owing to the fact of his being usually broken 
 and ridden in a snaffle bridle. This practice 
 has its uses, notably in that it makes the 
 horses bold fencers, and teaches them not to 
 be afraid of facing the bit, but it is not con- 
 ducive to the development of a park hack, 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. J 
 
 which should be able to canter round a 
 sixpence. I remember in my young days 
 seeing Mr Mackenzie Greaves and Lord Cardi- 
 gan riding in the park, the latter mounted 
 on a beautiful chesnut horse, which cantered 
 at the slowest and easiest of paces, the real 
 proverbial arm-chair, with a beautifully arched 
 neck, champing proudly at the bit, yet really 
 guided as by a silken thread. That was a 
 perfect hack, and would probably fetch now- 
 a-days four or five hundred guineas. No lady 
 ought to ride (if she wishes to look well) on 
 anything else. Men may bestride polo ponies, 
 or clatter lumberingly along on chargers, or 
 exercise steeple-chase horses with their heads 
 in the air, yawing at a snaffie ; but, if a 
 woman wants to show off her figure and her 
 seat she should have a perfect hack, not too 
 small, with a good forehand, nice action, and, 
 above all, a good walker, one that neither 
 fidgets nor shuffles nor breaks into a trot. 
 
 Bitting is, as a rule, not sufficiently con- 
 sidered. In the park, a light, double bridle, 
 or what they call in Ireland a Ward bit, is 
 the best, and no martingale should be required. 
 
8 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 People often wonder why a horse does not 
 carry his head in the right place. Generally, 
 unless the horse is unfortunately shaped, this 
 is the fault of the bit, sometimes it is too 
 severe, or too narrow, which frets and irritates 
 the horse's mouth. A horse with a very 
 tender mouth will stand only the lightest of 
 bits, and is what they call a snaffle-bridle 
 horse, not always the pleasantest of mouths, 
 at least out hunting ; for I cannot think 
 that a lady can really ever hold a horse well 
 together over a deep country, intersected by 
 stiff fences, with a snaffle, especially if he is 
 a big horse with somewhat rolling action. 
 It has been said by a great authority on 
 riding that no horse's mouth is good enough 
 for a snaffle, and no man's hands good enough 
 for a curb. I remember the late Lord Wilton, 
 one of the finest cross-country riders, telling 
 me to be sure never to ride my horse on the 
 curb over a fence. But, as I suppose there 
 s no absolute perfection in horse or man, 
 each rider must, to a certain extent, judge 
 for himself, and ride different horses in 
 different ways. But you may be sure of 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 9 
 
 this, that the bitting of grooms is gener- 
 ally too severe, and the hands of a man 
 who rides all his horses in martingales, 
 snaffles, and complicated arrangements of bit 
 and bridle, are sure to be wrong. The matter 
 practically resolves itself into hands. They, 
 after all, are the chief essentials in riding. 
 The " Butcher ' on horseback who tugs at 
 his horse's head as if it were a bedpost, 
 who loses his temper, who digs in the spurs 
 incessantly, and generally has a fight with 
 his horse over every fence, invariably possesses 
 bad hands as well as a bad temper. I believe 
 the reason that women who ride hard gener- 
 ally get fewer falls than men, is to be ac- 
 counted for by the fact that they leave their 
 horse's head alone, do not interfere with and 
 bully him, and are generally on good terms 
 with their mounts. For this reason I dis- 
 approve strongly of women riding with spurs, 
 and think that in most cases men would 
 be better without them. I had a personal 
 experience of this once, when I one day lent 
 a very clever hunter, who had carried me 
 perfectly, to the huntsman. He rode her 
 
to Ladies in the Field. 
 
 with spurs, she went unkindly all day and 
 refused several fences, a thing I had never 
 known her do before. Many men are too 
 fond of looking upon horses as machines, 
 ignoring their wishes and peculiarities, whereas 
 the true horseman is in thorough sympathy 
 with the animal he bestrides, and contrives 
 by some occult influence to inspire him with 
 confidence and affection. A horse, bold as a 
 lion with his master on his back, may very 
 often refuse with a timid, nervous or w x eak 
 rider. One mun, like the late George Whyte 
 Melville, can get the rawest of four-year-olds 
 brilliantly over a country, while another finds 
 difficulty even with an experienced hunter. 
 
 I believe thoroughly in kindness and gentle- 
 ness in stable management. I would dismiss 
 at once a groom or helper who hit, or swore 
 at, or knocked about a horse. Horses are 
 very nervous creatures, and keenly suscep- 
 tible to affection. I had once a beautiful 
 chestnut hunter, quite thoroughbred, and a 
 perfect picture, with a small, beautifully- 
 shaped head, and large, gentle eye. He had 
 evidently been fearfully ill-treated, for, if any- 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 1 1 
 
 «5 
 
 one came near him he would shrink into the 
 corner of his box, tremble violently, and 
 put his ears buck from sheer nervousness. 
 After a bit, seeing he was kindly treated, 
 he learut to follow me like a dog. Another 
 mare, who came with the reputation of a 
 vicious animal, and was supposed to bite all 
 those who approached her, used, after a time, 
 to eat nicely from my hand, much to the 
 astonishment of her late master, who saw 
 me go freely into her box. No man can 
 be a reallv good rider who is not fond of 
 
 ./ o 
 
 horses, and does not care to study their 
 peculiarities and tempers, and govern them 
 rather by kind determination than by sheer 
 ill-treatment. 
 
 A lady rider should look to her bit before 
 she starts, see that the curb chain is not too 
 tight, and the bit in the proper position. She 
 should visit her horse daily, and feed him in 
 the stable till he knows her voice as well as 
 one of mine did who, on hearing it, would rise 
 up on his hind legs and tr}^ to turn himself 
 round in his stall whinnying with pleasure. 
 And, above all, she should study her saddle. 
 
12 Ladies in m Jhe Field. 
 
 Sore backs are the terrible curse of a hunting 
 stable, and are generally produced by bad 
 riding, hanging on to the stirrup, instead of 
 rising when trotting, from the body, and sit- 
 ting crooked on a badly-fitting saddle. The 
 woman's seat should be a perfectly straight 
 one. She should look, as she sits, exactly 
 between the horse's ears, and, with the third 
 pommel to give her assistance, she ought to 
 maintain a perfect balance. Every lady's 
 saddle should be made for her, as some 
 women take longer saddles than others. The 
 stuffing should be constantly seen to, and, 
 while the girths are loosed, the saddle itself 
 never taken off till the horse's back is cool. 
 If it is a well-made saddle and does not come 
 down too low on the withers, a horse should 
 very rarely have a bad back. I have always 
 preferred a saddle of which the seat was flat 
 and, and in old days used to have mine 
 stuffed a good deal at the back so as to pre- 
 vent the feeling of riding uphill. Messrs 
 Wilkinson k Champion now make saddles on 
 that principle, on which one can sit most com- 
 fortably. Numnahs I do not care for, or if 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 1 3 
 
 they are used they should only be a thin 
 leather panel, well oiled, and kept soft and 
 pliable. 
 
 No lady should hunt till she can ride, by 
 which I mean, till she can manage all sorts 
 of horses, easy and difficult to ride, till she 
 knows how to gallop, how to jump, and is 
 capable of looking after herself. Half the 
 accidents in the hunting-field occur from 
 women, who can scarcely ride, being put upon 
 a hunter, and, while still perfectly inexperi- 
 enced, told to ride to hounds. They may have 
 plenty of courage but no knowledge. Whyte 
 Melville depicts pluck as " a moral quality, 
 the result of education, natural self-respect 
 and certain high aspirations of the intellect ; ' 
 and nerve " as a gift of nature, dependent on 
 the health, the circulation and the Kver. As 
 memory to imagination in the student, so is 
 nerve to pluck in the horseman." Women 
 are remarkable for nerve, men for pluck. 
 Women who ride are generally young and 
 healthy. Youth is bold and inconscient of 
 its danger. Yet few men or women have the 
 cool courage of Jim Mason, who was seen 
 
14 Ladies in the Fiecd. 
 
 galloping down a steep hill in Leicestershire, 
 the reins on his horse's neck, his knife in his 
 mouth, mending the lash of his whip. In fact, 
 a good deal of the hard riding one sees is often 
 due to what is called "jumping powder," or 
 the imbibing of liqueurs and spirits. For hard 
 riding, it should never be forgotten, is essen- 
 tially not good riding. The fine old sportsman, 
 ripened by experience, who, while quietly 
 weighing the chances against him, and per- 
 fectly aware of the risks he runs, is yet ready 
 to face them boldly, with all the resources of 
 a cool head and a wide knowledge, is on 
 the high road to being a hero. These calm, 
 unassuming, courageous men are those who 
 make their mark on the field of battle, and to 
 whom the great Duke of Wellington referred 
 when he spoke of the hunting-field being the 
 best school of cavalry in the world. 
 
 Most of us want to fly before we can walk. 
 This vaulting ambition accounts for the 
 contemptible spectacles that occasionally 
 meet our sight. A city man, who has had 
 half-a-dozen riding lessons, an enriched trades- 
 man, or an unsportmanlike foreigner, must 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 1 5 
 
 needs start a stud of hunters. We all re- 
 member the immortal adventures of Jorrocks 
 and Soapy Sponge, but how often do we see 
 scenes quite as ludicrous as any depicted 
 in Sartees' delightful volumes. Because 
 everyone he knows goes across country, 
 the novice believes fondly that he can do 
 the same. He forgets that the real sports- 
 man has ridden from earliest childhood; 
 has taken his falls cheerfully off a pony ; 
 and learned how to ride without stirrups, often 
 clinging on only bareback; has watched, 
 while still a little chap in knickerbockers 
 or white frocks, holding tight to the obliging 
 nurse's hand, some of the mysteries of the 
 stable ; has seen the horses groomed and 
 shod, physicked or saddled, with the keen 
 curiosity and interest of childhood, and 
 has grown up, as it were in the atmosphere 
 of the stable. Every English boy, the son 
 of a country gentleman, loves the scent of 
 the hay, not perhaps poetically in the 
 hay field, but practically in the manger. 
 He knows the difference in the quality of 
 oats, and the price of straw, the pedigree 
 
1 6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 of the colts, and the performances of the 
 mares, long before he has mastered the 
 intricacies of Euclid, or the diction of 
 Homer. To ride is to him as natural as to 
 walk, and he acquires a seat and hands as 
 unconsciously as the foals learn to trot and 
 jump after their mother ; and consequently, 
 as riding is an art eminently necessary to be 
 acquired in youth, everything is in his 
 favour, when in after life the poor and plucky 
 subaltern pits himself on his fifty-guinea 
 screw against the city magnate riding 
 his four - hundred - guinea hunter. Fortun- 
 ately this is so, for riding, while entrancing 
 to its votaries, is also an expensive amuse- 
 ment ; yet so long as a man has a penny 
 in his pocket that he can legitimately dis- 
 pose of for amusement, so long would one 
 wish him to spend it thus, for the moral 
 qualities necessary to make a good rider are 
 precisely those which have given En g] and her 
 superiority in the rank of nations. The Irish 
 with their ardent and enthusiastic natures, 
 are essentially lovers of horses ; and an Irish 
 hunter is without exception the cleverest 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 1 7 
 
 in the world. He has generally a light mouth, 
 always a leg to spare, and the nimbleness 
 of a deer in leaping. Apropos of the latter 
 quality, I remember the answer of an Irishman 
 who was selling a horse, when asked if he 
 could jump, — 
 
 " Is 't lep, ye mane, yer honour ? Well 
 there never was a leper the likes of him ! ' 
 
 " Does he feed well ? " 
 
 " Feed, yer honour ? He'd fatten on a 
 bowling alley ! " 
 
 Hunting; in Ireland, while rougher and more 
 unconventional, is certainly safer than in 
 England. The fences are big, but you do not 
 as a rule ride so fast at them, and are there- 
 fore not so likely to get a bad fall ; in addition, 
 there is rarely if ever any timber to jump. 
 But against that, there are a great many 
 stone walls, and nasty big black ditches, called 
 drains, which are boggy and unfathomable, 
 and the banks of which are rotten ; and there 
 is no road riding possible, and few gates, 
 while lanes are rare and far between. Never- 
 theless, I believe it is the best hunting country 
 for ladies. It has no big hairy fences to 
 
 £ 
 
1 8 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 scratch your face and tear your habit, and no 
 ox-rails ; the country is grass and beautiful 
 going ; you can ride a horse a stone lighter 
 than in England, and on a good bold horse 
 you can go pretty nearly straight. 
 
 The vexed question of habits appears now 
 to be one of the most serious matters, in con- 
 sequence of the many accidents that have 
 happened to ladies. When I began riding, we 
 wore habits that tore if they caught, and, 
 consequently, no one was ever hung up or 
 dragged. The strong melton cloth of the 
 present day does not give at all, and there- 
 fore is a source of great danger if the habit 
 catches on the pommel. None of the so- 
 called safety habits up to the present seem 
 to be absolutely satisfactory, nor any of the 
 dodges of elastic or safety stirrups. Mr Scott, 
 Jr., of South Molton Street, has invented the 
 latest safety skirt, but this is in reality no 
 habit at all, only an apron, and therefore can 
 scarcely be called a skirt. One great security 
 is to have no hem to the habit. Another is, 
 to be a good rider (for the bad riders always 
 fall on the off side, which is the reason their 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 1 9 
 
 habit catches on the crutch). The third is to 
 have a habit made of tearable material ; and 
 this, I believe, is the only solution of the 
 question, unless ladies decide definitely to 
 adopt a man's dress. Meanwhile, I would im- 
 press upon all women the great danger of 
 hunting, unless they are fully capable of 
 managing their horses, choosing their own 
 place at a fence, omitting to ride over their 
 pilot, or to gallop wildly with a loose rein, 
 charging every obstacle in front of them, and 
 finally, unless they have some experience in 
 the art of horsemanship. 
 
 Military men possess great advantages in 
 the hunting field. To begin with, they are 
 taught to ride, and probably have passed 
 some years in India, where the exercise is 
 commonly preferred to walking. Ladies of all 
 ages and figures ride there, and, no doubt, 
 in so doing, preserve their health and their 
 looks. There is a peculiar charm in Indian 
 riding. It is indulged in in the early morn- 
 ing, when the body is rested, the nerves 
 strong, and the air brisk and fresh ; or at 
 eventide, when the heat of the day is over, 
 
2o Ladies in the Field. 
 
 and a can tor in the cool breeze seems pecu- 
 liarly acceptable. How delightful are those 
 early morning rides, when, after partaking of 
 the refreshing cup of tea or coffee, your 
 "syce" or groom brings the pawing steed to 
 your door, and once in the saddle, you w T ancler 
 for miles, with nothing to impede your pro- 
 gress but an occasional low mud wall, or bank 
 and ditch, which your horse takes in his 
 stride, or a thorny " nullah," up and down 
 whose steep sides you scramble. There is 
 something fascinating in the seuse of space 
 and liberty, the feeling that you can gallop at 
 your own sweet will across a wide plain, 
 pulled up by no fear of trespassing, no gates 
 nor fences nor unclosed pastures with carefully 
 guarded sheep and cattle, no flowery cottage 
 gardens ; the wide expanse of cloudless sky 
 above you, the golden plain with its sandy 
 monotony stretched out in front, broken only 
 by occasional clumps of mango trees, or tilled 
 spaces, where the crops grow, intersected by 
 small ditches, cut for the purposes of irriga- 
 tion—free as a bird, you lay the reins on your 
 horse's neck, and go till he or you are tired. 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 2 1 
 
 <^ 
 
 Or in northern India, on a real cold, nipping 
 morning before sunrise, you gather at the 
 accustomed trysting-place and hear the wel- 
 come sound of the hounds' voices. A scratch 
 pack, they are, perhaps, even a " Bobbery " 
 pack, as the name goes in India ; but the old 
 excitement is on you, the rush for a start, and 
 the sense of triumphant exhilaration, as the 
 hounds settle to their work, and the wretched 
 little jackal, or better still, the wolf, takes his 
 unchecked course over the sandy hillocks and 
 the short grass. A twenty-minutes' run covers 
 the horses with lather, and sets your pulses 
 tingling. Presently the sun is high in the 
 horizon, and its rays are beginning to make 
 themselves felt. A few friendly good-byes, 
 some parting words of mutual congratulation, 
 and you turn to ride gently home, with a 
 feeling of self-righteousness in your heart, as 
 you greet the lazy sister, or wife, or brother, 
 who stands in the verandah looking for your 
 coming. A bath— that inestimable Indian 
 luxury — a lingering toilette, and so to break- 
 fast. And what a breakfast, with a lovely 
 appetite to eat it. Fish, beefsteaks, cutlets, 
 
22 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the most savoury and delicate of curries, fruit 
 and coffee, ought to satisfy a Sybarite. After 
 which a cigarette on a lounge in the verandah 
 maybe indulged in. By this time the day is only 
 just begun, and you are free to fill the remain- 
 ing hours with work or the claims of societv. 
 
 Most lovers of horseflesh, seizing their sun- 
 hats from the peg, sally out into the " com- 
 pound " (a kind of grass enclosure with a 
 few mango or tamarisk trees planted in the 
 middle, the low roofs of the stables and the 
 native servants' dwellings forming a back- 
 ground to it), and talk that cheery rambling 
 talk all true sportsmen delight in. 
 
 The horses, some in their stalls, some 
 picketed outside under the trees, are munch- 
 ing large bundles of fresh green lucern (a 
 kind of vetch, and a substitute for grass) ; 
 while the ebon grooms, seated on their haunches 
 on the ground, hold bits and bridles between 
 their toes, and rub away at them with praise- 
 worthy energy. On one side are the polo and 
 harness ponies, the match pair which the lady 
 shows you with pride ; on the other, the pony 
 unbroken and savage, just bought at a fair 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 23 
 
 while beyond are two or three " whalers," 
 fine sixteen -hand upstanding horses, all pro- 
 nouneed excellent fencers and first-rate pig- 
 stickers. The grey yonder, a compact, neat- 
 looking animal, resembling an Irish hunter, 
 was out this morning. Like most Australian 
 horses, he is a great buck-jumper, and going 
 to covert his master has some trouble in keep- 
 ing a steady seat, but when settled down into 
 his gallop, no mud wall is too high, no ditch 
 too broad, and no day too long for him. Many 
 are the prize spears he has won on hardly-con- 
 tested pig-sticking expeditions. 
 
 Then on Sunday, the clay voted to sport 
 in India, merry paper chases fill an idle hour 
 or two just before sunset. Any old screw, 
 country-bred pony or short-shouldered Arab 
 may be brought out on these occasions. The 
 hard ground resounds with a noise like the dis- 
 tant roll of thunder, as the line of horsemen 
 clatter along, raising a cloud of dust behind 
 them. Falls abound, for the pace is good, and 
 the leader of the chase well mounted. 
 
 The sugar canes rattle crisply like peas 
 on a drum, as you push your way quickly 
 
24 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 through the tall grass crops, which, forced 
 violently asunder by your horse's progress, 
 fall together again, and leave no trace of your 
 passage. Down a soft, sandy lane, you canter, 
 while your horse sinks in up to his fetlocks, 
 past a dirty little native village, swarming 
 with black children, where women in pictur- 
 esque attitudes lean and chatter by the shady 
 well; then over a rough, stony plain, inter- 
 sected by cracks and crevices in the hard 
 gaping earth, where you must pick your way 
 carefully, and hold your horse together lest he 
 break his leg and your neck, for (drawback of 
 all in India) the ground is dreadfully hard, 
 and falls do hurt. At last the chase is over, 
 and your wearied beast stands with legs apart 
 and nostrils heaving, trying to get his wind. 
 The sun has gone down in the sudden fashion 
 peculiar to tropical climes. Gloaming there is 
 none, but a lovely starlight, and the clear 
 rays of the moon to guide you safely on 
 your way home. Buddy lights shine out 
 from the native huts, sundry fires shed a 
 wild lustre, the faint, sickly odour of tobacco 
 and opium fills the air, and the weird 
 
Riding in Ireland and India. 25 
 
 beating of a tom-tom is heard in the 
 distance. 
 
 For those to whom such a wild hot scramble, 
 or the long free gallop over the plains does 
 not appeal, there is the pleasant ride along the 
 mall under the flowering acacia trees, where 
 friends meet you at every step, and your easily- 
 cantering Arab, with flowing mane and tail, 
 is in harmony with the picturesque Oriental 
 scene. Everyone rides in India, for in many 
 places it is the only means of transit. In 
 Assam and Central India, where roads are bad, 
 or non-existent, and the railroads are many 
 miles away, it is absolutely necessary for the 
 tea-planter to reach his plantations on horse- 
 back, riding long distances over rough ground ; 
 while the commissioner or civilian making his 
 judicial rounds, or the sportsman in search of 
 big game, rides his twelve or fourteen miles a 
 day, camping out in the jungle at night. The 
 lowest subaltern owns a pony or two, and 
 rides to and from his military duties, and 
 the pony may be seen led up and down in 
 front of the mess house, or standing playfully 
 flicking the flies off with his tail, while the 
 
26 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 faithful syce, his lean brown limbs trained to 
 exceeding fineness by the long distances he 
 runs, squats meekly on the dusty ground, and 
 calls his charge by all sorts of endearing names, 
 which the animal seems perfectly to under- 
 stand. Hand-iubbing, or what is vulgarly 
 called " elbow grease," is much practised in 
 India, and a groom attentive to his duties 
 takes a pride in polishing a horse's coat till it 
 is smooth and glistening as satin. Notwith- 
 standing this personal care, however, Indian 
 horses, especially country-breds, are not famed 
 for the sweetness of their tempers, and gener- 
 ally disagreeably resent their masters' at- 
 tempt to mount. This has accordingly to be 
 done in the most agile manner. Animals may 
 be seen kicking, biting, plunging and even fly- 
 ing at one another like savage dogs, with teeth 
 exposed, lips drawn back, nostrils heaving and 
 eyes flashing. Yet few people would exchange 
 the wild, daring horsemanship of India with its 
 pig-sticking and its wild game hunting, neces- 
 sitating the utmost degree of nerve and 
 deteimination, for the flat and unprofitable 
 constitutional in Eotten Eow, the country 
 
Riding in Ire/and and India. 27 
 
 ride alongr a road, or even the delights of 
 fox-hunting in England. 
 
 Kiding men, who love the sport for its own 
 value, are usually sunny-tempered, kindly at 
 heaic, and generously disposed. Women, who 
 ride, are easy to please and unaffected ; in fact, 
 what many men describe as " a good sort." In 
 conclusion, my advice to girls is, to take a 
 riding man for a husband, and to follow them- 
 selves as far as possible all out-door pursuits 
 anel amusements. Their moral qualities will 
 not suffer from it, while their physique will 
 gaiu considerably, for bright eyes, a clear com- 
 plexion, and a slim figure are beauties never to 
 be despised. 
 
 Violet Greville. 
 
HUNTING IN THE SHIRES. 
 
HUNTING IN THE SHIRES. 
 
 "There are emotions deeply seated in the 
 joy of exercise, when the body is brought 
 into play, and masses move in concert, of 
 which the subject is but half conscious. 
 
 "Music and dance, and the delirium of 
 battle or the chase acts thus upon spontane- 
 ous natures. 
 
 " The mystery of rhythm and associated 
 energy and blood-tingling in sympathy is 
 here. It lies at the root of man's most 
 tyrannous instinctive impulses." 
 
 Considering that J. Addiugton Symonds was 
 a permanent invalid, exiled to Davos by his 
 health, he shows in this paragraph extra- 
 ordinary understanding. 
 
 Fox-hunting is not merely an idle amuse- 
 ment ; it is an outlet for man's natural in- 
 stincts ; a healthy way of making him active, 
 and training his character. Whether it exer- 
 
 31 
 
\2 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 o 
 
 cises his mental faculties in a like degree is 
 another question. I do not think a man can 
 be very stupid who rides well to hounds. 
 The qualifying remark that "he is so per- 
 fectly mounted " rather adds to his credit 
 than otherwise, for, with unlimited means, 
 and the best possible intention it is difficult 
 in these days of competition to get together 
 a stud of hunters of the right stamp. 
 
 People vary considerably in their notions 
 of the right stamp ; but most men and women 
 who know anything about horses look out 
 for quality, good bone, loose elbows, active 
 shoulders, strong back, clean hocks, and a 
 head put on the right way ; whether in a 
 horse over sixteen hands or a pony. A 
 judge of horse flesh will never be mistaken 
 about these qualifications, either in the mean- 
 est-looking cab horse or a rough brute in a 
 farmyard. 
 
 Hunting people of long experience will tell 
 us they have had one horse in their lives. 
 One that suited their temperament, that they 
 took greater liberties with, that gave them 
 fewer falls, and showed them more sport 
 
H tinting in the Shires. ^^ 
 
 than all the others. Whyte Melville says, 
 " Forty minutes over an enclosed country 
 establishes the partnership of man and beast 
 in relation of confidence." The combination 
 of pluck, decision and persuasion in a man, 
 and nervous susceptibility in a horse, begets 
 intimacy and mutual affection which many 
 married couples might envy. One horse may 
 make a man's reputation, and pleasantly raise 
 the average of an unequal, even shady, lot 
 in his sale at Tattersall's. 
 
 I had a brown horse that did a great deal 
 for me. He was nearly thorough-bred ; by 
 Lydon, dam by Pollard, 15*3, with beautiful 
 limbs and freedom. He had poor ribs, rather 
 a fractious mouth, and the courage of an 
 army. I hunted him for six seasons ; in 
 Cheshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Wiltshire, 
 Gloucestershire, Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, 
 Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire, and 
 he never gave me a fall. 
 
 I once fell off him. After an enormous 
 jump over an average fence, prompted by 
 a feeling of power and capacity, he gave a 
 sort of skip on landing, and on this provoca- 
 
 C 
 
34 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 tion I " cut a voluntary," to use a sporting 
 phrase. He died of lockjaw, to my unceasing 
 regret. I remember in 1885 being mounted 
 on an extraordinary hunter. I had not gone 
 ten strides before I knew I could not hold 
 him. My patron, on receiving this informa- 
 tion, said, " What does it matter ! hounds 
 are running — you surely don't want to 
 stop ? ' " Oh, no ! ' I replied, " but I cannot 
 guide him." "That doesn't matter — they 
 are running straight," so, stimulated by this 
 obvious common sense, I went on in the 
 delirium of the chase, till I had jumped so 
 close to an innocent man that my habit 
 skirt carried off his spur, and, in avoiding 
 a collision at a ford, I jumped the widest 
 brook I have ever seen jumped ; and after 
 that I got a pull at him. He could not put 
 a foot wrong, and was perfectly unconscious 
 of my wish to influence him. 
 
 I be^an hunting with the inestimable 
 advantage of possessing no horses of my 
 own. For four years I rode hired horses, 
 and had many uncouth falls, but I never 
 hurt myself or my horse. There is free- 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 35 
 
 masonry among ''hirelings," I think: they 
 know how to protect themselves and their 
 riders. They jump without being bold; they 
 are stale without being tired ; and they live 
 to be very old ; by which, I presume, they 
 are treated better than one would suppose. 
 The first horse I ever possessed of my own 
 cost £100, and was called Pickwell, after a 
 manor house in Leicestershire. He was 15*2, 
 with a swivel neck. For the benefit of people 
 who do not understand this expression, I will 
 say he could almost put his head upon my 
 lap. He was a very poor " doer," and, to- 
 wards the end of the season, assumed the 
 proportions of a tea-leaf, and had to be sold. 
 He could not do a whole day even when only 
 hunted three days a fortnight. He was an 
 airy performer, and I was sorry to part with 
 him. I hunted him with the Grafton, the 
 Bicester, and Selby Lownides. Parts of the 
 Grafton country are as fine as Leicestershire, 
 without having quite its scope or freedom. 
 It is a very sporting country, with fine 
 woodlands and good wild foxes. When 
 I hunted there we had, in Frank Beers, 
 
2,6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 as good a huntsman as you could wish to 
 see. 
 
 In a paper of this length any criticism of 
 the various merits of hunting countries would 
 be impossible. In a rough w^ay this is how 
 I should appraise them. The Cottesmore for 
 hounds. The Burton for foxes. The Holder- 
 nesse for horses. The Pytchley for riders, 
 and the Quorn for the field. 
 
 This needs some explanation. 
 
 The Cottesmore is the most beautiful hound 
 country in England. It is wild and undis- 
 turbed : all grass, and carrying a good scent. 
 No huntsman can interfere with his hounds, 
 and no field over-ride them, for the simple 
 reason that they cannot reach them easily. 
 The drawbacks of this from a horseman's 
 point of view are as obvious as the advan- 
 tages to a houndman's. The country is very 
 hilly in parts, and a good deal divided by 
 unjumpable "bottoms," which the experienced 
 do not meddle with, and which are onlv 
 worth risking if you get aw r ay on good 
 terms with the pack, "wdrile they stream 
 across the first field with a dash that brings 
 
Htm ting in the Shires, 37 
 
 the mettle to your heart and the blood to 
 your brain," and your instinct tells you that 
 you are in for a good thing ! You gain 
 nothing by chancing one of these bottoms 
 in an average hunting run. The scientific 
 subscriber who knows every inch of the 
 country will be in front of you, and you 
 are fortunate if you get your horse out 
 before dark. Brookesby thus describes the 
 Cottesmore : — "A wide-spread region, scarcely 
 inhabited ; ground that carries a scent in 
 all weathers ; woodlands which breed a travel- 
 ling race ; and mile upon mile of untracked 
 grass, where a fox will meet nothing more 
 terrifying than a bullock." 
 
 If hounds really race over the hilly part 
 of the Cottesmore, no horse or rider can 
 follow them straight. He must use his head 
 and eyes, not merely test his pluck and 
 quickness. 
 
 He need never lose sight of the pack if 
 he is clever, and he will see a vision of grass 
 landscape stretching away below him, and 
 all around him, that will not fade with the 
 magic of the moment. 
 
38 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 There are people who predict the abolition 
 of fox-hunting; in England. These think 
 themselves the penetrating observers of life ; 
 they are really the ignorant spectators, who 
 take more trouble to avoid barbed wire than 
 to prevent it being put up ; people who 
 join in the groan of the times, without energy 
 or insight. Prophecies of this kind should 
 have no value, unless it be to make hunting 
 people more consciously careful. Since there 
 are larger subscriptions than ever, and more 
 people hunt, we can only trust that com- 
 pensation will be given liberally, but not 
 lavishly, and upon principles of good sense 
 and justice. I have thus digressed merely 
 to say that if such a day should arrive, 
 hunting is likely to survive longer in the 
 Cottesmore than in most countries. 
 
 The Burton (Lincolnshire) presents a strik- 
 ing contrast to the Cottesmore. It is as 
 flat as Holland, and you must be on the 
 back of hounds if you wish to see them 
 work. Most of the country is ploughed, and, 
 by a time-honoured custom which brought 
 both credit and money to the Lincolnshire 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 39 
 
 farmers, many of the fields are double 
 ploughed. This latter, to ride over, is only a 
 little better than steam plough. As the price 
 of wheat in England has fallen by 30 per 
 cent, the farmers are ruined, and they are 
 laying down more grass every year. The 
 characteristic fence of the county is a wide 
 drain set a little away from the hedge 
 and cut very deep. The upstanding fences, 
 although lower than those in the shires, 
 are pretty high if you look at the depth of 
 the ground from which you take off. 
 
 The gorse covers are splendidly thick and 
 overgrown and take a long time to draw ; 
 a good many of the fashionable packs, I 
 know, would hesitate to expose themselves 
 to such rough work as drawing Toff Newton 
 or Torrington gorse. The foxes are more 
 like Scotch foxes, large and grey. They are 
 wild, and take some killing, sometimes run- 
 ning for two hours. There are not enough 
 
 o o 
 
 inhabitants to head them or cheer the 
 discouraged huntsman by occasional in- 
 formation. 
 
 In Cheshire I saw five foxes killed on one 
 
40 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 da3^, but a huntsman in Lincolnshire will be 
 lucky if he kills two in a week. 
 
 I hunted two winters with the Burton 
 hounds, and I am sure the largest field I 
 ever saw was twenty people. The master, 
 huntsman and two whips included. Hunt- 
 ing in a big country with a small field and 
 wild foxes is the best way of learning to be 
 independent. If, as was my experience, you 
 have a hard-riding huntsman, who gets down 
 early in the run ; one whip who takes the 
 wrong turn out of cover, and the other who 
 hangs back after a refractory couple of hounds, 
 a few poorly-mounted farmers and unlucky 
 gentlemen, you can realise with moderate 
 difficulty the possibility of the proud position 
 of being alone with hounds ; although this 
 distinction may be capable of the same ex- 
 planation as was the position of the Scotch 
 boy who, when boasting of being second 
 in his class, was compelled to admit that it 
 consisted of "Me and a lassie." 
 
 I said the Holdernesse for horses, and I 
 certainly never saw a better mounted field 
 or a finer lot of riding farmers — all of them 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 41 
 
 sportsmen and gentlemen. They ask long 
 prices for their young horses, if they will sell 
 them to you at all, but the chances are they 
 have already promised them to some London 
 dealer. Yorkshire horses are, perhaps, after 
 Irish, the most famous. They are mostly 
 thorough-bred, and can gallop and stay. I 
 shall never forget a horse I held for a young 
 farmer which would not allow him to mount. 
 I can see it now, A long, loose-limbed bay, 
 with a small, keen, bony face, and an eye 
 that looked through you. I have a great 
 weakness for a horse's face, and think in a 
 general way it shows as much character as 
 a man's. His back was perhaps a trifle too 
 long, but his girth was deep, and he moved 
 like an athlete. He was as wild as a hawk, 
 and could hardly keep still for love of life, 
 dancing at every shadow, and springing feet 
 into the air when anyone passed too near 
 him. He was beautifully ridden and humoured 
 and ultimately settled into the discouraging 
 trot known as " hounds pace." I asked his 
 owner what he wanted for him, and how old 
 he was. The man said that he was rising 
 
42 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 six, that he wanted £300, and had often 
 refused £250. We had a long talk, as we 
 trotted down the road to draw the next 
 cover, about horses in general and his bay 
 in particular. I fancy his feats lost nothing 
 by being repeated, but I shall not relate 
 them, as what they gained by tradition 
 they would lose by print. 
 
 The Holdernesse is a light plough country, 
 and, like Lincolu shire, its common fence is 
 a deep drain, into which your horse can 
 absolutely disappear. I saw eight men down 
 in one, all at the same time, and a young 
 thorough-bred horse in a deep drain is about 
 the worst company in the world. 
 
 There is not a finer country to ride over 
 in England than the Pytchley. Unfortunately, 
 too many people agree with us, which is a 
 slight objection to hunting there. 
 
 They have wonderful sport, a first-rate 
 huntsman and a rich community. Lord 
 Spencer is the keenest of masters and best 
 of sportsmen. Whyte Melville says of 
 him in his riding recollections : " The present 
 Lord Spencer, of whom it is enough to say 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 43 
 
 he hunts one pack of his own in Northamp- 
 tonshire, and is always in the same field 
 with them, never seems to have a horse pull, 
 or, until it is tired, even lean on his hand." 
 I should like to have been praised by Whyte 
 Melville. He is one of the few novelists 
 whose heroes are gentlemen, who can de- 
 scribe English society and a straight forty 
 minutes over countries that we recognise. 
 
 The Pytchley is not cut up by railroads, 
 like the Quorn. There is not nearly so 
 much timber as there is in Leicestershire, 
 but it is as bisr if not bigger. 
 
 In old days, Lord Spencer told me, they 
 said, " You may, perhaps, go through the 
 Pytchley, but you must get over the Quorn." 
 
 If anything will teach one to gallop, it 
 is riding for a bridle gate in the company 
 of three or four hundred people, none of 
 them morbidly civil. 
 
 You must get there, and get there soon, 
 as it is the only visible means of securing 
 a start, or getting into the next field. Some- 
 times one's horse has a sensitive habit of 
 backing when he is pressed, which allows 
 
44 Ladies' in the Field. 
 
 everyone to pass you. In any case, you 
 will have a horse's head under each arm ; 
 a spur against your instep ; a kicker with 
 a red tape in his tail pressed towards your 
 favourite mare, with the doubtful consola- 
 tion of being told, when the iron of his hoof 
 has rattled against her fore-leg; that "it was 
 too near to have hurt her." Your hat will be 
 knocked off by an enthusiast pointing to the 
 line the fox is taking, and your eye will 
 dimly perceive the pack swaying over the 
 ridg;e and farrow, like swallows crossing the 
 sea, two fields ahead of you. If you harden 
 your heart and jump the generally gigantic 
 fence at the side of the gate, you expose 
 yourself to the ridicule of the whole field ; 
 for it is on these occasions that your favourite 
 is pretty sure to fall on her head. 
 
 No one is responsible for the manners of 
 a field which is largely made up of " specials ' 
 from Kugby, Leamington and Banbury. A 
 Northamptonshire hunting-man is as nice 
 a fellow as there is in England, and out- 
 side his own country has the finest man- 
 ners ; but the struggle for existence in the 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 45 
 
 field with hard-riding casuals has hardened 
 his heart and embittered his speech. 
 
 Every field has its own character ; an 
 indescribable "something" which one feels 
 without being able to define. There is a 
 friendliness and distinction about the Melton 
 field peculiarly its own. The Quorn Fridays 
 are joined by Mr Fernie's field, the Cottes- 
 more, Bel voir and others, and is in conse- 
 quence very large. Tom Firr, the huntsman 
 — and a man who can very nearly catch 
 a fox himself — is less moved by a large 
 crowd than anyone I ever saw, unless, 
 perhaps, it be his hounds who "come up 
 through a crowd of horses, and stick to 
 the line of their fox, or fling gallantly 
 forward to recover it, without a thought 
 of personal danger, or the slightest mis- 
 giving that not one man in ten is master 
 of the two pair of hoofs beneath him, carry- 
 ing death in every shoe." 
 
 A friend of mine — a cricketer — said that 
 he did not know which country he pre- 
 ferred hunting in — Leicestershire or North- 
 amptonshire — but there was the same differ- 
 
4.6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 ence between them as playing at Lords and 
 playing at the Oval. 
 
 Melton Mowbray is about three hours and 
 a half from London. By leaving London 
 at 7 '30 you can hunt with the Pytchley 
 at an eleven o'clock meet. You must get 
 up earlier to hunt with the Quorn. I doubt 
 if many people would risk leaving London 
 between five and six in a climate like ours, 
 where you cannot be quite sure that between 
 five and eleven heavy snow may not have 
 fallen, or that the damp in one county is 
 not hard black frost in the next. 
 
 Some say that Melton is not what it was. 
 Perhaps this is because there are no poets 
 left to sing of it. Bromley Davenport, Why te 
 Melville and others have left us. Perhaps 
 the red town has spread, and the old fox- 
 hunters who grumble have grown older. Of 
 course the old days were better when they 
 found themselves leading " The cream of the 
 cream in the shire of the shires." These 
 days do not come twice. A man is fortunate 
 to have had them once, and be able to say 
 with the poet and philosopher, — 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 47 
 
 Be fair or foul, or rain or shine, 
 The joys I have possessed in spite of fate are mine. 
 Not Heaven itself upon the Past has power. 
 What has been has been, and I have had my hour. 
 
 It is no small consideration to a Meltonian 
 that he can hunt six days a week, and never 
 leave his house at an undue hour. 
 
 The Duke of Beaufort told me that the 
 three best huntsmen living were Tom Firr, 
 old Mr Watson (of the Carlow hounds), and 
 Lord Worcester, and he is pretty sure to 
 be right on any sporting matter. Whatever 
 people may think of the last two named, 
 Tom Fin's reputation is as firmly established 
 as was Fred Archer's in another line. 
 
 From criticising the countries, I should like 
 to pass on to the riders, both men and women, 
 that I have seen and admired ; but, not being 
 a journalist, I could not commit this indis- 
 cretion. I shall content myself, and perhaps 
 not offend anyone, by writing a few general 
 observations on women's riding. 
 
 No woman can claim to be first-rate over 
 a country, unless she can take her own line. 
 Most women have pluck, and would follow 
 
48 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 their pioneer were he to attempt jumping 
 an arm of the sea ; but place them alone in 
 an awkward enclosure, they will not know how 
 to get out of it. They need not of necessity 
 take a new place in every fence, but if a 
 gap is away from the line they imagine 
 to be the right one, it is irritating to see 
 them pull out to follow one particular 
 person. They don't diminish the danger by 
 surrendering their intelligence,, if they are 
 well mounted and conscious of what they 
 are doing. A good rider chances nothing, 
 but must of necessity risk a good deal. 
 
 I do not think women are good judges 
 of pace, and although they are seldom afraid 
 of jumping, they hardly ever gallop. Men 
 will say it is because they sit on one side 
 and have not the power to make a horse 
 gallop. This is obviously true in the case 
 of many horses, but there are some who, 
 roused by the nervous force in their riders, 
 will gallop without being squeezed, and who 
 want nothing more than to be held together 
 and left alone, 
 
 There is a great deal of nonsense talked 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 49 
 
 about "lifting' and "recovering' a horse. 
 More horses have recovered themselves by 
 being left alone in moments of difficulty 
 than by all the theories ever propounded. 
 When a horse pecks with a man he is 
 thrown forward ; a woman, if she is sitting 
 properly and not hanging her toe in a short 
 stirrup, is, if anything, thrown back, and, 
 from the security of her seat, is able to 
 recover her horse with more natural advan- 
 tage than a man. A woman's seat is strong, 
 but never balanced ; a horse refusing suddenly 
 to the left may upset her balance without 
 moving her in her seat. When a horse bucks, 
 from the very fact that to keep on, she 
 must sit tioht, it is so tiring that the chances 
 are she will be bucked off sooner than a man. 
 If she gets the least out of her saddle she 
 cannot, by reason of the pommels, get back, 
 whereas a horse may play cup and ball with 
 a man for a long time without missing 
 him. 
 
 There are two classes of hunters that a 
 woman should not be mounted on ; the two 
 that Whyte Melville says want coercion. 
 
 D 
 
$o Ladies in the Field. 
 
 " The one that must be steered, and the 
 other smuggled over a country." A nervous, 
 fractious brute will go as well, if not better, 
 with a woman than with a man on him. 
 
 It is, I suppose, a want of independence 
 in the feminine character that makes most 
 women follow some particular man. They are 
 nearly always beautifully mounted, and have 
 keen enough observation to measure the 
 height of a fence, and see the weak place. 
 You will hear a man say to his wife, — " I 
 must give Favourite a turn, dear, she is get- 
 ting sticky," and he will take his wife's mare, 
 an accomplished hunter, wise as a chape- 
 ron, and ride her with a cutting whip. It 
 is probably the result of always following 
 another horse, which has taken the spirit of 
 emulation out of the mare, robbing her of 
 a sense of responsibility and a chance of being 
 anion o- the first few in a fine run. 
 
 A man seldom rides as hard if he is followed 
 by a lady. He loses his dash. 
 
 At one time no woman could fall without 
 a certainty of being dragged by her habit 
 skirt, or her stirrup ; but now, at anyrate, that 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 5 1 
 
 danger lias been removed, by Scott's * apron 
 skirt, and Mayhew's # patent side saddle. 
 
 I saw a narrow escape once, some years ago. 
 A young lady of indifferent nerve, mounted 
 by a male relative on an uncongenial horse, 
 trotted slowly down hill to a high fence to 
 see what was on the other side. The horse, 
 supposing he was meant to jump the fence, 
 not unnaturally proceeded to do so, much 
 against the lady's will. Her weak resistance 
 succeeded in landing him on his head, in a 
 deep ditch on the other side. She fell 
 off, and was hung up by her habit skirt. 
 The horse recovered himself, and, feeling a 
 heavy weight on one side of him, was seized 
 with a panic of fear, and, laying back his ears, 
 thundered alons; in the ditch which had a 
 gravelly bottom. A gentleman, unconscious 
 of what had happened, rode down to the fence 
 from the other side, and canonned upon landing 
 against the loose horse and prostrate lady ; 
 they all rolled over together. As the lady's 
 head had apparently been bumping the 
 
 * Scott in South Molton Street ; and Mayhew in Seymour 
 Street, Edge ware Road. 
 
52 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 grass bank for some twenty yards, we sup- 
 posed she was killed ; but, on extrication, she 
 was discovered to be unhurt. The man had 
 broken his collar-bone. Her habit was of the 
 old-fashioned kind, and did not give way. 
 
 Everyone has seen similar casualties, and 
 men, as well as women, dragged on their 
 heads ; it is the most alarming part of 
 hunting. 
 
 I am told that there is a great art in falling, 
 and certainly it requires judgment to know 
 when to hold on and when to let go of the 
 reins. There can be nothing more exasperat- 
 ing to a man than to loose his horse in a trifl- 
 ing accident, when he has a first-rate place 
 at the beoiainno; of a run. A friend of mine 
 looking over a dealer's yard stopped before 
 a flea-bitten mare. He said he would like to 
 see her run out, as she looked like suiting 
 him. The dealer replied, — " I could not 
 honestly recommend her to you, sir, she 
 would run away with you." ''But," said 
 my friend, " she is the very animal I want ! 
 The last one I had ran away without me." 
 
 Loose horses are trials that go far to prov- 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 53 
 
 ing your character ; you may make a friend 
 for life by catching his horse. There are, 
 of course, occasions when it would be mere 
 waste of time attempting anything of the 
 sort, when a stupid animal careers wildly away 
 in the opposite direction of hounds ; but I 
 am often struck by the way self- centred 
 people let the easiest opportunities pass of 
 serving their neighbours. I have been de- 
 lighted by seeing men, purposely looking 
 the other way, punished by the confiding 
 animal going straight up to them, making 
 it impossible, with the best show of clumsi- 
 ness, to avoid bringing him back to his 
 grateful owner, who jerspiring, runs across 
 the ridge and furrow, in breeches and boots 
 of the most approved fashion. 
 
 There is one other and last side of fox- 
 hunting with which I will conclude. 
 
 E. L. Stevenson says, " Drama is the poetry 
 of conduct, and Komance the poetry of cir- 
 cumstances." There is only one sport that 
 combines drama and romance ; the sport for 
 kings. There are days when your very soul 
 would seem to penetrate the gras°, when, with 
 
54 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the smell of damp earth in your nostrils, and 
 the rhythm of blood- stirring stride underneath 
 you, you forget everything, yourself included. 
 These days live with you. They console you 
 for the monotony of Swiss scenery. They 
 translate you out of fierce Indian sunshine ; 
 they rise up between } 7 ou and the gaslight, 
 and shut out the grey grinding streets. You 
 wake up to ask the housemaid half uncon- 
 sciously whether it is freezing ; the answer 
 leaves you uncertain, and you jump out of bed. 
 There is a damp fog on the window, w^hich 
 you hastily wipe away, to see the paths are 
 brown, and the slates wet ; there is no sun 
 and no w r ind. You hear the tramp of the 
 stable boy's feet below your room, and 
 snatches of a song whistled in the yard, you 
 can see the clothes line hung with stable 
 breeches, and a very old dog poking about 
 the court. You tie your tie, left over right, 
 with the precision of habit, and, seizing your 
 letters, run down to breakfast. You are in- 
 dependent of your host ; he has a hack. You 
 ask your hostess what she is going to do with 
 herself, w 7 hile she w T alks across the yard to see 
 
Hunting in the Shires, 55 
 
 you start in the buggy. You let the boy 
 drive while you read your letters. You 
 thrust them into your pocket and bow faintly 
 over a high coat collar as you swing past the 
 different riders and second horsemen. You see 
 your horses at a corner of the road, and are 
 told you cannot ride Molly Bawn, as she " 'it 
 erself" in the night — an unsatisfactory way 
 horses valuable have of incapacitating them- 
 selves. You get on your horse and ride 
 through a line of bridle gates till you find 
 yourself in a bewildering throng of people and 
 horses, just outside the village. Ladies lean- 
 ing over their splash boards, talking to fine 
 young gentlemen, unconscious of their shaft, 
 which is tickling a horse of great value, the 
 groom leading it, too anxious about his own 
 mount to observe the danger. Children back- 
 ing into bystanders, with their habits in 
 festoons over the crupper ; ladies standing up 
 in their carriages divesting themselves of their 
 wraps, and husbands unfastening their hat 
 boxes; dealers discreetly and conspicuously 
 taking their horses out of the crowd and 
 cantering them round the field to show their 
 
56 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 slow paces, looking down at the ground and 
 sitting motionless, as if uneonseious of any on- 
 lookers. Hard, weather-beaten men in low 
 crowned hats, with double snaffles in their 
 horses' mouths, are feeling their girths, and 
 ladies in long loose coats explaining to their 
 pilots that they wear their strap on their heels, 
 not on their toes. Your host comes up now, 
 and you wonder, to look at his hack, that he 
 ever arrived at all. You ask as delicately as 
 
 you can what he is riding. " Old S n," he 
 
 replies, and you find yourself criticising the 
 winner of a former Grand National. In all 
 this fret and fuss Tom Firr sits like a philo- 
 sopher, surrounded by the questioning pack ; 
 vouchsafing an occasional remark to a farmer 
 or a patron of the hunt. At last the vast 
 field is set in motion, and, with an eye on 
 Firr, you jog down the road to draw. In- 
 stead of following the knowing ones, and 
 standing outside the covert at an advantageous 
 point down wind, you go inside and watch the 
 hounds dancing through the little copse, 
 shaking the dewdrops on the undergrowth, 
 and scattering with indifference the startled 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 57 
 
 rabbit. In perfect stillness you thread your 
 way slowly through the tangled tracks, your 
 horse arching his neck and pointing his toes 
 as if he were stepping to the drum and fife. 
 There is a spring in the grass path, and a 
 thrill in the air which makes you lift your 
 face to the open sky as if to receive the 
 essence of the day, and a blessing from the 
 unseen sun. Suddenly, without warning, a 
 silver halloa rings through the air, driving the 
 blood to your heart, and you find yourself 
 wheeling your horse round and crashing 
 through the undergrowth to a gap you had 
 noticed as you came along. The whole field 
 is thundering round the cover as you jump 
 out of it with the last hound, and the pack 
 makes hard for a fence of impassable thick- 
 ness. Luckily for you they turn up it, and 
 a lagging hound joins his friends half way 
 up the fence, where the growers are thinner. 
 The gate is locked, but the rail at the side is 
 jumpable, and your horse takes off accurately 
 and lands you in the same field as hounds. 
 You find yourself with Firr and five or six 
 others, who have galloped twice your distance, 
 
58 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 to catch them. You avoid a boggy gap, 
 which the two riders ahead of you are making 
 for, and catch hold of your horse for a clean 
 " stake-and-bound." It is down hill, and you 
 feel as if you never would land. You jump 
 into a road, and nearly fall off as your horse 
 turns suddenly down it, following the other 
 horses. The hounds cross, and you are 
 carried down the road past the few places 
 where you could jump out, and the people 
 behind profit by their position and get over 
 where hounds crossed. You hammer along 
 the road with twenty people shouting " Go 
 on ! " whenever you want to stop, till an open 
 gate takes you into the field, where you see 
 five or six men a good way ahead of you. 
 Nothing but pace serves you then, and all the 
 warnings in the world that there is wire, or a 
 brook, will not turn you from your intention 
 to catch them again. 
 
 By luck, which you hardly deserve, the 
 wire is loose upon the ground, and you 
 only t wing-twang it with one shoe as you 
 land, and are off again before it curls like 
 a shaving round your horse's leg. 
 
Hunting in the Shires. 59 
 
 You have put wire between you and the 
 field, and are now free to go as you please for 
 the next twenty minutes. Firr and five 
 others are your only rivals, and they are 
 ready to whistle a warning where the country 
 gets complicated. 
 
 The pack check for a moment outside a 
 small cover, but the fox is too tired and too 
 hard pressed to go into it, and Firr gets their 
 heads down with a sound, quite impossible to 
 spell, and five minutes after, the hounds are 
 tumbling over each other like a scramble at 
 a school-feast, and Firr holds up the fox 
 with an expression in his face as if he could 
 cat him. 
 
 • ••••..., 
 
 You tuck the rug round you, with your 
 mouth full of buttered toast. Your lamps are 
 lit, and the sky is aglow. 
 
 "Let 'em go please. Cornel" and with a 
 bound and a clatter you leave the sun behind 
 you, and, shaving the gate-post, swing down 
 the turnpike home. 
 
HORSES AND THEIR RIDERS. 
 
HOESES AND THEIR RIDERS. 
 
 Br the Duchess of Newcastle. 
 
 Why are ladies sometimes considered nuis- 
 ances out hunting ? Because the generality 
 of riders are unfortunately in the way of 
 their neighbours, and have not the remotest 
 idea of what they ought to do. 
 
 Before they inflict themselves on the hunt- 
 ing field, they should learn to manage their 
 horses, to keep out of the way, and should 
 they wish to jump, to ride straight at their 
 fences, not landing too near their pilots, and 
 not taking anyone else's place. When once 
 they can accomplish so much, they will no 
 longer be considered troublesome. In fact, 
 few things are more dangerous than riding 
 in Rotten Row, simply because the greater 
 part of the riders have not the faintest idea of 
 the risks they incur. You will see both young- 
 men and young women galloping recklessly 
 
 ^3 
 
64 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 along with a perfectly loose rein, sometimes 
 knocking down tie unfortunate ones wio 
 happen to be in tteir way, and followed by 
 grooms wio iave usually even less idea of 
 riclino- and finish the mischief their owners 
 
 o 
 
 have begun. 
 
 Then the untidy, slipshod way the riders 
 are often turned out is a disgrace to a 
 country which is considered to have the 
 best horses and riders in the world. What 
 must foreigners — Hungarians, for instance, 
 who know something of riding, of horses, 
 and of horsemen— think of tie doubtful 
 spectacle two-thirds of the riders present. 
 Poor old screws, who have usually to pull 
 the family coach of an afternoon, broken- 
 down hunters, an apology for hacks, are to 
 be seen carrying their fair burdens, who 
 look anything but at home in their saddles, 
 with hair piled up in latest but most un- 
 workmanlike fashion, flapping blouses, and 
 habits that look as though night - gowns, 
 still worn, were beneath. Of course many 
 people cannot afford expensive hacks, but 
 I would sooner any day have a broken- 
 
Horses and their Riders. 65 
 
 winded or broken-kneed screw that was well- 
 bred and well-shaped, than a sound one 
 who looked an underbred, lazy, three-cornered 
 beast. Besides, there is no reason why any- 
 one who can afford a horse at all, should 
 not have it well groomed, with neat saddle, 
 and brightly-burnished bit, and be at the 
 same time smartly turned out herself. It is 
 as cheap to be clean as to be dirty ; and a 
 little extra trouble will go a long way in 
 the desired direction. 
 
 For the safety of the multitude, it would 
 be a good thing if all people who are going 
 to ride or drive on the public highway were 
 made to pass an examination as to their 
 capabilities, and I do not believe, if that 
 were so, that half of the present riders in 
 the road would be admitted. 
 
 Children are taught to ride quite on the 
 wrong principle. How can a child of three 
 understand or appreciate a ride in a pannier 
 on some fat Shetland's back? The acre of 
 eight years is quite soon enough for any 
 child to begin ; before that time it is im- 
 possible for them to control the smallest 
 
 E 
 
66 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 pony, and this very experience often destroys 
 their nerve. 
 
 In buying a pony, be very sure that it 
 is sound, with a nice light mouth ; twelve 
 hands is quite small enough. Most children's 
 hands are spoilt by letting them learn to 
 ride on a pony destitute of any mouth, the 
 result is they learn to hold on by the poor 
 thing's bridle, and anyone who does that 
 can never ride well. Let girls first learn to 
 stick on a cross saddle before putting them 
 on a side saddle, it teaches them to sit 
 straight, and is much better for them in 
 every way. 
 
 Anyone with bad hands can never be a 
 really good rider. You can go hard, be able 
 to ride a horse that has bad manners, such 
 as kicking, bucking, rearing, running away, 
 for that is simply a matter of nerve ; but 
 a good rider means someone whose horse 
 always goes nicely and kindly, who does 
 not hang on his mouth, who knows how to 
 make him gallop, and can ride really well 
 at a fence. Half the falls out hunting come 
 from putting your horse crookedly at the 
 
Horses and their Riders. 67 
 
 fence, and from losing your head when he 
 has made a mistake. 
 
 Always endeavour — should your horse come 
 down with you, and you have not parted com- 
 pany — to keep your presence of mind. Do 
 not try to get off, as that will probably lead 
 to a worse accident. Leave the reins alone, 
 for nothing frightens a horse more when he is 
 clown than touching his mouth with the bit. 
 Sit quite still, and it is more than likely that 
 you will be able to continue your ride without 
 the smallest mishap, or even a dirty back. 
 
 A great deal has been said on the subject 
 of ladies' horses. One thing is quite certain — 
 they cannot be too good, and for a side-saddle 
 a fine shoulder is indispensable ; for, if you 
 ride a horse without it, the sensation is most 
 unpleasant. You feel as though you were 
 sitting on his ears. Before mounting, ahvays 
 see that the saddle is not put on the top of 
 the withers, but just behind them, so that 
 the weight does not fall on the top of the 
 shoulders. Besides being less likely to give a 
 sore back, the rider is much more comfortable. 
 The reason why ladies give a sore back so 
 
68 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 often is that they ride with too long a stirrup, 
 and do not sit straight. Sit well to the off 
 side, and, should you think your saddle is 
 not quite straight, either get someone to alter 
 it for you or go home, for anything is better 
 than to have your horse laid up for a month 
 with a bad back. I think a well-bred horse 
 about 15*2, with a nice light mouth, is the 
 nicest mount for a woman. For if one gets 
 a really good fencer and galloper this size, 
 he is far better than a big underbred horse 
 that tires one out immediately. But, of 
 course, everyone has to be mounted according 
 to her w T eight. A nice light w T eight can see 
 a great deal of sport on the back of a really 
 good pony about fourteen hands. It is wonder- 
 ful the big fences many such ponies will con- 
 trive to get over, if they really mean business. 
 The first pony I ever had w T as a little twelve- 
 hand Welsh mare, and there was nothing that 
 pony wouldn't jump or scramble over somehow. 
 What w T as too high for her she would get 
 under. She could crawl and climb like a cat, 
 and gallop faster than most horses ; and, when 
 she was twenty years of age, was as fresh as 
 
Horses and their Riders. 69 
 
 a three-year-old. In fact, my brother won 
 three races of five furlongs on the flat with 
 her, against much bigger ponies. The best 
 thing I can wish any of our readers is to have 
 another, whether horse or pony, as good and 
 as game as she was. 
 
 K. Newcastle. 
 
THE WIFE OF THE M. F. H 
 
THE WIFE OF THE M.F.H. 
 
 By Mrs Chawobth Musters. 
 
 If there is one calling in which a real help- 
 mate can be of more use to a man than any 
 other, it is in that many-sided and arduous 
 undertaking called " hunting a country." 
 
 Not that it is to be desired that a lady 
 should take an active part in the field man- 
 agement, like the well-meaning dame who is 
 reported to have said to an offender, "If I 
 w T ere a gentleman I would swear at you." But 
 without letting zeal outrun discretion, how 
 much may a ''mistress of hounds " (as we 
 will call her for brevity's sake) do to pro 
 mote sport and good feeling, besides deciding 
 on the cut of a habit, and on who is to be 
 invited to wear the hunt colours. 
 
 "I have been a foxhunter myself, and I 
 know how selfish they are," was the re- 
 
74 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 mark once made to the writer by an old 
 gentleman in Leicestershire, and it must, in 
 candour, be admitted that there was some 
 truth in his agreeable frankness. 
 
 Now, the mistress of the hounds should 
 do all in her power to make hunting ac- 
 ceptable, by trying to counteract the over- 
 bearing egotism which no doubt is apt to 
 be the effect of an absorbing pursuit on 
 men's characters. 
 
 She should bear in mind that hunting 
 was, after all, made for man, and not man 
 for hunting, and that because some people 
 are fortunate enough to be born with a 
 taste for that amusement, combined (which 
 is important) with the means of gratifying 
 it, there is no reason why others less happily 
 gifted should be despised and sent to the wall. 
 
 The cause of fox-hunting was never yet 
 furthered by votaries, who appear to think 
 everything else in the way of sport un- 
 worthy of thought or notice. " Give and 
 take," should be their motto, as well as that 
 of all conditions of men, in fact, "more so' 
 considering that, in the present day, most 
 
The Wife of the M. R H. 75 
 
 followers of hounds are indebted to others 
 for their fun, and do not own a yard of the 
 land they ride over. 
 
 Many a man is "put wrong" for life, and 
 hastily designated as a " beastly vulpecide," 
 who would have been pleased to find a fox 
 for his neighbours now and then, though not 
 caring for the sport himself, if he had 
 been treated with the consideration generally 
 shown in other matters. Therefore, the lady 
 we have in our mind will do all she can to 
 sympathise with the pursuits and amuse- 
 ments of others besides hunting people, and 
 will do her best to destroy the idea that a 
 fine horsewoman must necessarily be " horsey," 
 or a lover of fox-hounds " doggy." 
 
 Since the extraordinary popularity of Whyte 
 Melville's and Surtee's novels and songs, a 
 generation has grown up, who have flattered 
 themselves into the belief that the fact of 
 riding after hounds at once makes heroes 
 and heroines of them, and that they are 
 almost conferring a benefit on their fellow- 
 creatures by emulating Kate Coventry or 
 the Honourable Crasher. 
 
j 6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 Formerly people went hunting because 
 they liked it, now with many it is a means 
 to an end, a passport to good society, a 
 fashion rather than a taste. 
 
 In the true interests of fox-hunting this 
 is to be deplored, but as it is impossible to 
 separate the wheat from the chaff, a mistress 
 must content herself with smoothing over 
 difficulties, with trying to avoid coll ! sions 
 between those who live in a country, and 
 those who hunt in it ; and it will be her 
 aim to make up for any roughness or seem- 
 ing neglect on the part of those who follow 
 her husband's hounds. 
 
 As Jorrocks told James Pigg, " There 
 must be unanimity and concord, or we sha'n't 
 kill no foxes." 
 
 A lady should herself set an example of 
 courtesy when meeting at a country house 
 by dismounting and paying her respects 
 to the hostess, especially if the owner 
 is not a habitual follower of the chase. 
 She may also sometimes make an oppor- 
 tunity to call on her way home for a few 
 minutes, not obviously with the desire of 
 
The Wife of the M. F. H. 7 7 
 
 snatching a few mouthfuls, like a hungry 
 do2f, and then tearing out again, but in a 
 neighbourly, pleasant fashion, for no one likes 
 to be unmistakably made a convenience of. 
 
 These little amenities go a long way to- 
 wards what is called "keeping a country 
 together," and, when the lady at the head 
 of affairs sets her face against rudeness and 
 " cliqueishness ' there is likely to be less 
 friction between those whom a Melton sports- 
 man once designated as the " cursed locals," 
 and the sporting gentry who are only birds 
 of passage. 
 
 Politeness in the field is, of course, part of 
 our ideal lady's nature, and she could no 
 more omit to thank the sportsman, farmer, 
 or labouring man, who showed her an act 
 of civility, than if he were her partner at a 
 ball ; though a story is told of a gentleman 
 in a crack country, who said to a fair follower 
 of the chase, that she was the forty-second 
 lady he had held a gate for, and the first 
 who had said "Thank you." 
 
 But let us turn to the farmer, who with 
 his farmyard gate in his hand, is anxiously 
 
7 8 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 watching some young stock crowding against 
 his valuable ewes in an adjoining field, while 
 a light-hearted damsel is leading a select 
 party over the wheat, so as to outstrip the 
 riders who follow the headland, on their 
 way to draw a favourite covert. Possibly 
 that farmer in " a happier day than this," 
 rode his own nag horse with the best of 
 them, and talked cheerily to his landlord 
 about the cubs in the big rabbit hole, and 
 the partridge " nesses ' in his mowing grass, 
 but now neither he nor " the Squire " can 
 afford nag horses or shooting parties. It is 
 toil and moil, all work and no play, for 
 the occupier ; and very likely the landlord 
 has had to let the pleasant acres on which 
 he and his forefathers disported themselves, 
 and feels shy of the tenants for whom he 
 is unable to do all they have been accustomed 
 to. 
 
 It is in these cases that " the lady ' will 
 come to the front, with all the tact and 
 kindliness that is in her. Instead of rushing 
 rudely past him, she will pull up and listen 
 to the poor man's remarks, and, perhaps, help 
 
The Wife of the M. F.H. 79 
 
 him to restrain his straying beasts. There 
 are so many occasions in a day's hunting, 
 when a few minutes more or less are of 
 little importance, that it is a pity they 
 should not be utilised in promoting good 
 feeling and. mutual understanding, instead 
 of bein£ wasted in grumbling at the hunts- 
 man, and. abusing the sport he shows. 
 
 The mistress of the hounds can do some- 
 thing, surely, by precept and example, to 
 discourage the outrageous lavishness coupled 
 with meanness, which is the curse of modern 
 life, and is nowhere more odious and 
 out of character than in the hunting 
 field. 
 
 People who spend every sixpence they can 
 afford, and some they cannot, on their habits 
 and boots and saddles, cannot, of course, 
 produce one of those useful coins at an oppor- 
 tune moment, but if they could stint them- 
 selves now and then of an extra waistcoat 
 or tie, they would find that the spare cash 
 would go a long way towards mending a 
 broken rail ; to say nothing of the different 
 feeling with which the advent of hounds 
 
So Ladies in the Field. 
 
 would be regarded, if it meant money in 
 the pocket, instead of out of it. 
 
 Munificence in the few, but meanness in 
 the many, is, unfortunately, too much the 
 rule among hunting men and women. They 
 find it apparently much easier to write tirades 
 to the Field on the subject of "wire' for 
 instance, than to produce a few shillings 
 and quietly get it taken down, as in some 
 instances could easily be done. A wooden 
 rail costs sixpence, a day's work half-a-crown, 
 and it does seem rather pitiful, that, consider- 
 ing the three millions more or less annually 
 spent on hunting in the United Kingdom, 
 it should be found impossible, except in a 
 few well-managed districts, to provide funds 
 for fencing. 
 
 Our mistress might well turn her attention 
 to this matter, and she may induce other 
 ladies to look round their own neighbour- 
 hoods, and see what can be done in this 
 way in a friendly spirit, without the formali- 
 ties of committees and subscriptions. 
 
 It is not unlikely that among the tenant 
 farmers or freeholders of our lady's acquaint- 
 
The Wife of the M. F. H. 8 1 
 
 ance may be one, who from age or " bad 
 times ' has been obliged to retire to a smaller 
 sphere, but whose heart is still true to fox- 
 hunting, and who would delight in being 
 of use, if he only knew how. Such a man, 
 mounted on an old pony, could be of the 
 greatest service in a hunting country. He 
 would follow in the track of the horsemen, 
 shutting the gates they have invariably left 
 open, and would have an eye on the perverse 
 young horses and wandering sheep which do 
 not "love the fold," but prefer to rush 
 madly, like their betters, after the fascina- 
 tions of a pack of hounds. 
 
 There may be instances in which the 
 mistress of the hounds herself is content 
 to " take a back seat " and to humbly watch 
 her husband's prowess without emulating it, 
 and in such a case she can do a good deal 
 in the way of shutting gates, calling atten- 
 tion to stray stock, and noting damage done 
 to fences and crops. 
 
 It is quite impossible for a master to see 
 half the delinquencies committed by his field, 
 though he is. of course, held responsible for 
 
 F 
 
82 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 them, but if the rearguard of the merry chase, 
 so to say, was brought up by an official, 
 whose business it was to detect the offenders 
 who get off and "jump on top' of fences, 
 it would be a cheaper and more satisfactory 
 arrangement in the long run. 
 
 In a wet season it should be borne in mind 
 that it hurts all crops to be ridden over, grass 
 as well as arable, and therefore roads and 
 headlands should be strictly adhered to when 
 going from covert to covert. Any consider- 
 able damage should be apologised for, if 
 possible at once, and if people were not so 
 desperately afraid of paying for their amuse- 
 ment (because that amusement is called hunt- 
 ing), an acknowledgement given there and 
 then to the sufferer would do him no harm, 
 and the cause of fox-hunting a great deal 
 of good. A season or two ago, a whole 
 field of ardent (?) sportsmen in a crack 
 country allowed themselves to be delayed 
 for a long time bandying words at an oc- 
 cupation bridge, with a man who had " turned 
 awkward," and who was completely in his 
 rights within stopping the way if he chose. 
 
The Wife of the M. F.H. S3 
 
 It seems curious that among a hundred 
 horsemen, worth among them, probably, as 
 many thousands a year, no one seems to 
 have been struck with the idea of producing 
 a sovereign to pay for the cutting up of 
 the grass that must follow the passage of 
 such a squadron. 
 
 But perhaps we have dwelt too lono- 
 on the seamy side of the duties of a 
 mistress of hounds. Let us turn to the 
 more agreeable contemplation of her 
 pleasures. 
 
 Should she belong to a hunting family, 
 she will have heard from her father, ever 
 since she can remember, stories of the " brave 
 days of old," of Meynell, and Musters, and 
 the giants of those days. She will have 
 learnt to sing " Osbaldeston's voice, reaching 
 the heavens, boys," to repeat the " Billesdon 
 Coplow" and " Eanksborough Gorse," and 
 in the intervals of schoolroom lessons she 
 will have been taken to see packs now, 
 perhaps, become historical. 
 
 If a dweller in the North Country, the 
 name of Ralph Lambton will be familiar 
 
84 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 to her ; and in the South, legends of John 
 Ward and Mr Farquharson of Badminton, 
 and Berkeley, have been the delight of 
 her youth. 
 
 Should she be fortunate enough to live 
 in " the Shires ' she may, from an early age, 
 have looked up at the towers of Belvoir, 
 where hunting and hospitality are a byw r ord 
 and a delight, and she may just remember 
 the glories of Quorn, and Sir Richard, of Lord 
 Henry, and the Burton, like Mr Bromley 
 Davenport, 
 
 " Nourishing a verdant youth, 
 With the fairy tales of gallops, ancient runs 
 devoid of truth." 
 
 The kind cheery voices of Captain Percy 
 Williams and Mr Anstruther Thomson, always 
 indulgent and encouraging to young people, 
 may have fostered her natural love of the 
 chase, and she may, while hunting with the 
 former, have imbibed some idea of riding, 
 from the sio;ht of the celebrated Dick 
 Christian handling the young horses at 
 Rufford. 
 
The Wife of the M. F.H. 85 
 
 She will have looked with a reverential 
 awe at blind Mr Foljambe of Osberton, who 
 was able to judge of any hound by the sense 
 of touch, long after that of sight was denied 
 him, and who still hunted led by a groom. 
 
 Perhaps a little private hunting with 
 beagles, or foxhound puppies, may have 
 given our future mistress an interest in 
 individual hounds, their treatment and char- 
 acteristics, so that by - and - by, when she 
 has to do with things on a larger scale, 
 it is easier for her to know one hound 
 from another, and to appreciate their 
 differences, than if she had never seen less 
 than seventeen or eighteen couple to- 
 gether. 
 
 Very likely it may have been her dream 
 from childhood to marry a Master of Hounds, 
 so when, as the old song says, — 
 
 "A young Country Squire requested her hand, 
 Whose joy 'twas to ride by her side, 
 So domestic a prospect what girl could withstand, 
 She became, truly willing, his bride." 
 
 Then would follow 7 the interest of making 
 
S6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 acquaintance with the country, with all 
 classes of people in it, with the coverts, 
 lanes, and bridle-paths, the lovely little bits 
 that most people never see at all, to say 
 nothing of the pleasant companionship of 
 hounds, horses, and hunt-servants. 
 
 Captain Percy Williams's advice to a young 
 M. F. H. was, " Stay at home with your wife 
 and your hounds," but how can a man do so, 
 if his wife is all agog to drag him to London 
 or abroad directly the hunting season is over ? 
 Hounds should be a summer as well as a 
 winter pastime, but whether they are so or 
 not depends almost entirely on the wife of 
 their possessor. 
 
 When all is said and done, two people, 
 who are young, happy, and like-minded, can 
 scarcely find an enjoyment greater than that 
 of going out hunting together with their 
 own hounds. To be starting on a nice 
 horse, on a fine morning, for one long- 
 day of happiness, is a delight that can 
 only be enhanced by sharing it with a 
 kindred soul, and best of all if that soul is 
 a husband's. 
 
The Wife of the M. F. H. S7 
 
 Then the greetings from all classes at the 
 meet, the feeling of giving pleasure to so 
 many, the pride in the hounds, and the skill 
 of the huntsman, tempered though it be 
 with anxiety for the success of the day's 
 sport, all go to warm the heart and fire the 
 imagination as nothing else does. 
 
 And as the hours pass imperceptibly, and 
 the brown woods open their vistas, and 
 yellowing pastures alternate with dark hedge- 
 rows, and the chiming of hounds with the 
 distant holloas, there is the anticipation of 
 an 
 
 " Oak Room with a blazing fire 
 To end a long day's ride, 
 And what to them is chance and change 
 While they sit side by side." 
 
 Years afterwards, when many other things 
 have turned to bitterness or disappointment, 
 comrades of the hunting field will be a solace 
 and a pleasure to each other, and the mistress 
 of the hounds, when no longer following their 
 cry, will be with them in spirit, will be in- 
 terested to the points of each run, the perform- 
 
88 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 ancc of each pack, and her heart will ever 
 beat true to 
 
 "The friends for whom, alive or dead, her love is 
 unimpaired ; 
 The mirth, and the adventure, and the sport that 
 they have shared." 
 
 Lina Chaworth Musters. 
 
F O X-H U N T I N G. 
 
FOX-HUNTING 
 
 " The sport of kings, the image of war without its 
 guilt, and only five-and-twenty per cent of its 
 danger." 
 
 There are many ladies very well qualified 
 to write a valuable paper on the art of 
 riding over a country, but, possibly, the 
 following short sketch — from the hunting 
 more than the riding point of view — may be 
 of interest, as I am sorely afraid ladies are 
 sometimes apt to forget the presence of the 
 hounds, and little consider the trouble and 
 anxiety it takes to bring into the field a 
 really efficient pack. 
 
 Some masters may have the good fortune 
 to start with a ready-made and perfect pack 
 of hounds — a most perishable possession — 
 as a very short time of unintelligent man- 
 agement will reduce the finest pack in the 
 kingdom to a comparatively worthless one 
 
 91 
 
92 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 — but the majority have to begin from the 
 bottom for themselves. 
 
 Fortunately, draft hounds are plentiful, 
 and a hundred couple or more can easily 
 be bought — out of which (taking care to 
 get quit of any good-looking ones) forty 
 couple sufficient for a start may be got. 
 Now as to horses. 
 
 Many people suppose that any sort of 
 screw is good enough for a servant's horse. 
 No more fatal or uneconomical error exists. 
 
 A huntsman's horse should be as near per- 
 fection as can be got ; and this cannot be 
 had for little money. 
 
 A huntsman has sufficient to do to attend 
 to his business, without being a rough rider 
 at the same time, and ought to feel himself 
 to be the best mounted man in the field, 
 or thereabouts. 
 
 If he is put on inferior animals, he has 
 a very strong temptation to feed his hounds 
 back to his horse. A really strong pack of 
 hounds on a good scent will run away from 
 any horse living. 
 
 And that wouderful huntsman one hears 
 
Fox-hunting. 9 
 
 i 
 
 of " who is always with his hounds," nine 
 times out of ten always has his hounds with 
 him. 
 
 All servants' horses should be well-bred, 
 strong, and short-legged, for it must be 
 borne in mind that they have much harder 
 work than gentlemen's horses, therefore care 
 should be taken that they are qualified to 
 carry a good deal more weight than w r ould 
 appear necessary to the uninitiated. 
 
 Hounds and horses having been bought, 
 we must now proceed to man the ship. 
 
 To begin with — The Master. 
 
 Let us suppose an M. F. H., who has been 
 properly taught the trade (for it is impossible 
 for anybody, be he never so rich, to satisfac- 
 torily perform the duties of this important 
 position, unless he has been thoroughly 
 grounded in the rudiments). 
 
 Such an one is always courteous and kindly 
 to those with whom he is brought in contact, 
 be they connected with the agricultural in- 
 terest, or members of his field. There is a 
 vast deal of human nature in people, and 
 a little civility goes a long way. 
 
94 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 An ill-mannered master is a curse to any 
 country, and a mere " Field-Damner " is 
 a creature unfit to live. 
 
 Few know the troubles of keeping a 
 country, and the cordial co-operation of the 
 master in this work is of vital importance. 
 
 Our supposititious M. F. H., however, thor- 
 oughly appreciates this obligation, and, bear- 
 ing this in mind, he will select for his huntsman 
 a respectable, well-mannered servant. Nothing 
 farmers and keepers detest so much as an ill- 
 conditioned, uncivil man. 
 
 The first necessity in a huntsman is, that 
 he should be a man whom hounds are fond 
 of, and who is fond of them. He should 
 be in constant companionship with his hounds, 
 taking the greatest care in keeping them 
 off their benches as much as possible. The 
 neglect of this somewhat troublesome duty 
 in many kennels results in lameness. 
 
 He must be an early man in the morning, 
 as hounds ought to be finished feeding by 
 eight o'clock the day before hunting. 
 
 He should carefully watch the constitution 
 of each hound, and feed it accordingly. 
 
Fox-hunting. 9 5 
 
 It is impossible for hounds to drive and 
 run hard unless they are fed strong, and 
 are full of muscle. 
 
 A thin hound is a weak hound and tires 
 at night. 
 
 Hounds ought always to be cast in front 
 of their huntsman, but this cannot be done 
 unless they are really strong and vigorous. 
 
 If to these important qualifications can be 
 added a fine horseman, so much the better ; 
 but riding is really a secondary considera- 
 tion in a huntsman, provided he is work- 
 man enough to keep pretty handy with his 
 hounds. 
 
 There is no occasion to give young gentle- 
 men a lead over the country, let them find 
 the way for themselves. 
 
 A good cheery voice is also a valuable 
 property in a huntsman. 
 
 For his whipper-in, he will have a young 
 man who has learnt his duty, as described 
 in a little book called Hints to Huntsmen* 
 by heart. If he knows that, and 'practises 
 
 * Hints to Huntsmen, by Colonel Anstruther Thomson, 
 published by Fifeshire Journal Office, Cupar-Fife. 
 
g6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 it, he will have all the necessary know- 
 ledge. 
 
 A more abominable sight does not exist 
 than the hard-riding whipper-in, he is, for 
 the most part, a useless, conceited lad, who 
 will never do any good in this world or the 
 next. 
 
 The second whip should be a nice, quiet 
 boy, and a good horseman. 
 
 Having got our establishment into work- 
 iii a order, we w T ill now take it out for a 
 hunt, which I will try to describe from the 
 point of view indicated in my opening para- 
 graph. 
 
 For a right good place to find a fox, give 
 me a smallish wood. As a rule, hounds 
 come away from a wood settled to their 
 fox, which is not the case from a gorse, 
 the first whip having been sent on to view 
 the fox away. 
 
 The field being placed by the master 
 (who remains w T ith them)* in a favourable 
 position, our huntsman throws his hounds 
 
 * You will recollect that our master has been taught, and 
 knows that whip's work is not his duty. 
 
Fox-hunting. 97 
 
 into covert, encouraging them to spread 
 and draw, being careful that they are in 
 front of his horse. When a well-known 
 voice proclaims the hitting of the drag, he 
 cheers the pack to that hound, calling it 
 by name, as " Hark to Melody ! Hark to 
 her ! Hark ! ' But they fly to one another 
 of themselves, and shortly there is a grand 
 cry. 
 
 One ring round the wood, and the 
 whipper-in's " Tally-ho, gone awa-a-a-y " is 
 heard, he having taken good care to let 
 the fox well away before holloa-ing. The 
 huntsman now makes his way as fast as 
 possible to the holloa, at the same time 
 blowing his horn for the information of the 
 field— 
 
 -! 1 
 
 -*— m- 
 
 — as the hounds leave the covert, well settled 
 to the scent. 
 
 And now, I think, you can appreciate my 
 preference of a wood to a gorse. 
 
 Then, what a scene of excitement. Men 
 and women in such a fuss and hurry. In 
 
 G 
 
 
98 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the whole lot only about three really calm 
 and collected— the master (seeing a useful 
 scent, and hounds with a fair start, is, for 
 once in a way, delighted to say, " Catch 
 them if you can ! "), and an oldish man or 
 two still able to take their part, if hounds 
 really run. 
 
 Let me, like black care, sit behind one of 
 these latter, and view the chase through his 
 spectacles. He knows every gate and gap in 
 the country for miles round, but this morning 
 he sees he must desert his favourite paths 
 if he wants to see the hounds run. All the 
 dash of twenty years ago returns to him, 
 as he slips his steady old hunter over a 
 somewhat awkward corner, and (before most 
 of the young ones take in the situation) 
 is making the best of his way to the down- 
 wind side of the now flying pack.* 
 
 Well, here we are. And, first, let us take 
 a look at the hounds. For a scratch lot, 
 they are well together, and the careful 
 
 * If you have a chance, always get the down-wind side of 
 hounds running, because, even if you lose sight of them, you 
 can still hear the cry, while, if you are up-wind, it is extra- 
 ordinary what difficulty you have in hearing them. 
 
Fox-hunting. 99 
 
 kennel management of the summer shows 
 itself. 
 
 Now for the horsemen, see the hard gentle- 
 man of tender years galloping from sheer 
 funk at fences, that one of the old school jumps 
 out of the most collected canter. And then, 
 oh, ye gods, the girls! brave beyond words, 
 jamming their unfortunate horses into every 
 sort of difficulty, with elbows squared, and 
 the sole of their foot exposed to the aston- 
 ished gaze of those behind them. 
 
 Alas ! alas ! the art of equitation will 
 soon be a lost one. 
 
 Fifteen minutes racing pace takes the 
 nonsense out of all. The fox turns sharply 
 down - wind, and the huntsman — who has 
 been riding carefully and quietly — knows 
 they have overrun it. Not one word does 
 he say, letting his hounds swing their own 
 cast. As they do not recover the line, he 
 is compelled to give them a bit of assistance. 
 With such a scent, he can go a little 
 fast; so, at a sharp trot, he makes his 
 cast back, his whip putting the hounds on 
 to him. No noise nor rating, such as is 
 
i oo L a dies in the Field. 
 
 only too frequently heard. An ugly black- 
 and - white brute hits the seent down a 
 hedgerow. He cheers the pack to him, well 
 knowing it was not the lack of beauty that 
 caused the old dog to be where he is. 
 
 Now, stand back and see them hunt, with 
 nothing to mar your pleasure in watching 
 the wonderful instinct of a high-bred fox- 
 hound, except the chatter of the male and 
 female thrusters, describing to each other 
 the wonderful leaps they have severally sur- 
 mounted. # 
 
 The fox now runs the road for a quarter 
 of a mile. Whatever you do, keep off them, 
 and give hounds room to turn.t 
 
 The chase continues down -wind. How r 
 they swing and try. Look how they drive 
 as they hit the scent, then spread them- 
 selves like a fan, only to fly together again 
 
 *If you go out hunting, hunt. There is nothing more 
 irritating to the real sportsman than the incessant chatter 
 and laughter of people who take no intelligent interest in 
 the business of hunting. 
 
 t When hounds run down a road, get your horse on the 
 grass siding. Nothing is so apt to force hounds beyond the 
 scent as the rattle of horses' feet behind them. 
 
Fox-hunting. \o\ 
 
 as a trusted comrade speaks to the 
 line. 
 
 "All this comes of condition," as my old 
 gentleman says. 
 
 Hark ! a holloa forward. 
 
 Do you think a sensible man will lift them ? 
 
 No ; so long as they can carry on, he 
 knows they will go quicker than he can 
 take them. 
 
 More patient hunting, through sheep and 
 over bad ground, the huntsman cheering his 
 hounds, but never interfering with them, as 
 they work out all the turns of a sinking 
 fox for themselves. 
 
 They'll have him directly, one can see by 
 the determined rush of the older hounds. 
 Sure enough ! In another minute they run 
 from scent to view, and pull their fox down 
 in the open. 
 
 Five-an 1-forty minutes, and I ask you if 
 this is not a sporting hunt. 
 
 My old friend dismounts, leading his horse 
 away, at the same time remarking, — 
 
 ' It is a nasty sight to see ladies watching 
 a poor fox pullod to pieces." 
 
102 
 
 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 Although a note od the subject of blow- 
 ing a hunting-horn may not be of great in- 
 terest to many people, still, I venture to 
 think, no harm can be done in placing be- 
 fore your readers how a huntsman ought to 
 communicate on that instrument with his 
 hounds and field. 
 
 When he views a fox — 
 
 ^ — s* — ^ — 9 i* p ^ ^- 
 
 In-drawing (especially in a big wood) — 
 
 i 
 
 T 1 J^_ 
 
 if hounds are wide of him, they stop to 
 listen to the first note, and go to the second. 
 To stop hounds off heel or riot — 
 
 i 
 
 :e: 
 
 To call hounds in the open to cast- 
 
 $ 
 
 " Gone away " — 
 
 i * -i i# - 
 
 1? U U 1 4* ~t* fr - 
 
Fox-hunting. 
 
 103 
 
 To draw hounds out of covert — 
 
 i 
 
 2zz^^: 
 
 a — s 
 
 When a fox is killed — 
 
 "V — ^ — s* — b* — b* — ^ — b* — >- 
 
 also, 
 
 i 
 
 zy.. 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 Some people only use the long rattle at the 
 death, but my opinion is that the eight 
 very sharp notes should be blown, as hounds 
 know that they mean a fox, and a fox only, 
 whether alive or dead. 
 
TEAM AND TANDEM DRIVING. 
 
TEAM AND TANDEM DRIVING. 
 
 By Miss Rosie Anstruther Thomson. 
 
 Being almost a beginner myself, it is with 
 diffidence that I commence to relate my small 
 experiences in four - in - hand driving. It is 
 only because I have had the advantage of 
 watching a first-rate coachman in my father 
 that I venture to do so — having taken care 
 to gather from him many hints and wrinkles 
 as to what to do, and not to do, and more 
 especially the reason why. 
 
 It is, I know, supposed to be easier to drive 
 a team than a tandem, because two horses 
 abreast are believed to be less foolish than 
 two single horses. Personally, I think all 
 horses are astonishingly foolish at times, and, 
 for a lady, a tandem is much less heavy. 
 
 Of course it depends in a measure on 
 people's hands whether horses feel heavy 
 and hang, but the weight of four horses on 
 a woman's wrist is decidedly a strain, until, 
 
 10 
 
10S Ladies in the Field. 
 
 through practice, she becomes accustomed to 
 the feeling — that is, unless the team is so 
 perfectly trained that they almost drive 
 themselves. 
 
 In driving a team, the first thing to be 
 learnt is the art of " catching " a four-in-hand 
 whip. It certainly holes easy enough, and 
 many a rime have I watched my father, with 
 one upward turn of his wrist, catch it unerr- 
 ino-ly every time, and felt — "Of course any 
 duffer could do that!" — eagerly proclaiming 
 my ability to do it too. This, however, is an 
 altogether different affair. Xo twisting no 
 jerking is allowed, but simply a turn of the 
 wrist, making something like a figure eight 
 in the air, and leaving the thong caught on 
 the stick (never try to catch your thong with 
 the stick) with a loop above and a few turns 
 round the stick below, which brings both lash 
 and stick into your hand together. It is an 
 impossible thing to describe, and the only way 
 to learn it is to get some patient friend to 
 show you how. And you will require all your 
 Job-ish propensities, for it is by no means easy 
 at rirst, and it makes you feel very foolish 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 109 
 
 when all your efforts fail, after it has looked 
 so ridiculously simple in the hands of an ex- 
 pert. Nothing looks worse than people essay- 
 ing to drive a team without knowing how to 
 catch their whip, and their wild attempts to 
 attain that end are almost pathetic, for the 
 flourishes they make, end invariably only in a 
 hopeless complication and tangle. 
 
 Having mastered your whip, the next thing 
 to do is to defeat your reins — and beware that 
 they do not defeat you, for they are very 
 mixing, and the numbers one has to deal with 
 make one almost giddy, after the ordinary 
 single pair. In driving a team, or a tandem, 
 you should not hold your reins one through 
 each finger, as in riding, but put one rein — 
 your near leader's — over the top of the fore- 
 finger of your left hand, and the other leader's 
 rein — the off — and the near wheeler's reins 
 both between your first and middle fingers 
 (the leader's upmost), while your off wheeler's 
 rein comes lowest of all, between your middle 
 and third finger. It looks rather complicated 
 on paper, but is really very quickly learnt, 
 especially if the wheeler's reins are a little 
 
r 10 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 different in colour, having probably become 
 darker through more constant wear. 
 
 Mind you take your reins before you get 
 on to your box, and never commit the folly 
 of getting into a carriage before your coach- 
 man, or coach woman, has hold of the reins, 
 for it is both dangerous and foolish. 
 
 Before vou take the reins, it is well to look 
 round all the harness and satisfy yourself that 
 the curb chains and throat lashes are loose 
 enough (grooms are so fond of pulling every- 
 thing up as tight as it will go, and often seem 
 to treat throat lashes and curb chains on the 
 same principle as girths). See that the bits 
 are not too short in the horses' mouths, that 
 your leaders are properly coupled, and also your 
 wheelers. You cannot be too particular about 
 detail in this case, and mind the pole chains 
 are not too tight. They should be easy, so 
 that they can just swing — the pole carrying 
 itself without resting any weight on the horses 
 collars. 
 
 After you have seen that all is right, go 
 round to the off-side wheeler and take your 
 leader's reins from off his pad, put them in 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 1 1 1 
 
 your left hand, with forefinger between, then 
 pick up your wheeler's in your right hand, 
 with forefinger between. Now pass them on 
 to their ultimate destination (one on each 
 side of the third finger of your left hand), 
 and draw the near reins through your fingers 
 till you get them so short (while you are still 
 on the ground) that they will all come even 
 when you are sitting on your box. Nothing 
 denotes a muff more than omitting to do 
 this. Of course the driver must judge how 
 much rein to take in, with bis or her eye, 
 before getting up. 
 
 As you cannot swarm on to your box 
 hampered by the reins in your left hand, you 
 must take them in your right until you have 
 settled yourself comfortably, and are sitting 
 (not standing) firmly on your seat, which 
 should not slant up too much, for one gets 
 more purchase if one is not merely leaning 
 against the box. Once there, change your 
 reins back into your left hand, take the whip 
 out of the socket, catch it, drop your hand, 
 and set sail. 
 
 The correct thing, I believe, is to have 
 
1 1 2 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the whip ready caught and laid across the 
 wheeler's quarters. That is what they did 
 iu old coaching days, and the driver used 
 to take it up with his reins together in 
 his right hand, with the whip pointing towards 
 his right shoulder. He then got up, with 
 reins and whip all ready to start as soon 
 as he said the word i: Go ! " 
 
 It would be a good thing if grooms at 
 the horses' heads would let go the in- 
 stant you give them the hint to do so. 
 Nothing is more irritating to both horse 
 and driver than a man who w T ill hold on 
 after you have started. 
 
 In starting, you should have your leaders 
 a little shorter by the head than the wheelers, 
 as the wheelers should start the coach. Let- 
 ting the leaders start first is very likely to 
 end in disaster. Like buckets in a well, 
 they jump off with a jerk before the wheelers 
 are ready. Just as they subside, off go the 
 wheelers. The result is confusion, and pos- 
 sibly a broken trace. # Take up your reins 
 
 * One should always go out provided with an extra trace, in ease 
 of accidents. 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 113 
 
 then, to avoid this calamity, feeling all your 
 horses' mouths, but with the leaders' accentu- 
 ated ; and, when you are quite ready to 
 start, just drop your hand and chuckle to 
 them. Never " kiss ' at your horses, and 
 never say "Pull up," — both are shocking 
 and unpardonable. 
 
 As to the use of a four-in-hand, whip, 
 there is almost as much art in hitting the 
 leaders as there is in throwing a fishing- 
 fly. You should always hit your leaders under 
 the bars, and quietly, to avoid startling the 
 other horses. In driving anything, whether 
 one horse or four, you should always begin 
 by touching your horse quite gently at first, 
 just drawing the whip across his shoulder. 
 If this hint is not enough, repeat it a little 
 harder and a little harder still, so that he 
 improves his pace gradually, this obviates 
 the uncomfortable jolts and jerks caused by 
 bad coachmen when using their whips ; they 
 make the mistake of hitting hard the first 
 time, the horse jumps forward and the 
 passengers nearly dislocate their necks in 
 consequence. Also, you should always hold 
 
 H 
 
ii4 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 them a little tighter when you are going to 
 use the whip to prevent their starting for- 
 ward, for many horses will jump at the 
 first touch, no matter how lightly it is laid 
 across them. 
 
 In turning a corner with a team or tandem, 
 take up your leaders' reins a little and give 
 them the hint which turn to take before you 
 get to the corner (this is technically called 
 ' ; pointing your leaders"). They are generally 
 quick enough at taking your hint, and then 
 mind you allow enough space for the hind 
 wheels of your coach. 
 
 Always go quite slow off the top of a hill. 
 Take up your leaders before you get to it. 
 You can get safely down any hill, no matter 
 how steep, provided you start slow enough 
 off the top. The pace is bound to increase 
 the further down you get, so it is wise not 
 to start too fast, otherwise you end in an 
 uncomfortable sort of gallop, with the coach 
 overhauling the horses all the way. Some- 
 times it is a good plan to increase your pace, 
 supposing there is a hill to be got up just in 
 front of you ; in that case, get your horses 
 
Team and Tandem Drivings 1 15 
 
 into a gallop going down so as to get a run 
 at the next hill, and the impetus will carry 
 you up much easier if you have a real good 
 swing at it. Of course a Ions; hill is a dif- 
 ferent thing, especially if it is off the flat, 
 and in every case your horses must be con- 
 sidered. 
 
 It is important that horses should be 
 brought in cool, therefore one should do the 
 last mile of the journey slowly and quietly 
 that they may not be too hot on arriving 
 at their stable. 
 
 It is a bad thing to keep horses waiting 
 at the start, they are not generally gifted 
 with much more patience than we are, and 
 it is worse to check them once they are on 
 the move, therefore it is best, when all the 
 passengers are on board, that the last to get 
 up should sing out " Right," to let the coach- 
 man know they are really ready to be off, 
 and so prevent the risk of beiug implored 
 to " wait just one moment ' for the for- 
 gotten coat or umbrella, or the thousand and 
 one things people always do forget until the 
 very last instant, notwithstanding what is 
 
1 1 6 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 usually the fact that they have been dawdling 
 about hours before hand, with nothing else to 
 do but to prepare themselves for the cold and 
 rain which, in this climate, is about the only 
 thing one can count on. 
 
 Once off, try to leave your reins alone as 
 much as possible ; it is irritating to your horses' 
 mouths, and looks bad, to be always fidgeting 
 and pulling at either one rein or the other. 
 Don't let your leaders do all or nearly all 
 the work, and going down hill don't let 
 them do any, but catch hold of them pretty 
 short just before you get to the brow of 
 the hill and pull them back — a tiny bit on 
 one side to prevent the wheelers treading 
 on their heels. 
 
 In taking up and shortening your reins, 
 many people say you should always push 
 them from in front with the right hand, 
 and not draw them through the fingers 
 from behind, though the latter way often 
 seems the most natural, and all coachmen 
 do not agree on this point. It looks better 
 to drive with one hand, the left, and to keep 
 the right for the whip and an occasional assist- 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 1 1 7 
 
 ance only ; but a woman must have wrists 
 of iron to drive a team with one hand for 
 long, especially as the wrist should always 
 be bent in driving as well as in riding. 
 Driving with straight wrists is altogether 
 wrong. One thing never to be forgotten 
 is always to make your wheelers follow your 
 leaders, thereby you can generally assume 
 an air of nonchalance, and pretend that you 
 intended the sudden deviation off the middle 
 of the road caused by the digression of the 
 leaders, if your wheelers immediately follow 
 in their footsteps. Should it be only a slight 
 digression, a pull at the two reins between 
 your first and second fingers both at once, 
 will put them right immediately, as that gets 
 at your off leader and near wheeler at the 
 same time, and is a very quick way of getting 
 the team straight again. It is better form 
 not to use the break unless it is absolutely 
 necessary. People bore one so who are always 
 putting their drags on and off. I do not 
 mean the " shoe/' as that, of course, must 
 be put on, on occasions when the hill is steep 
 to prevent the coach running on to the horses. 
 
1 1 8 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 I remember once driving with my father 
 in the Fife country, where the roads resemble 
 switchback railways more than Christian high- 
 ways. We had arrived at the top of a very 
 steep pitch, and the grooms having slipped 
 on the shoe, we were trundling serenely 
 down, when, just as we reached the middle 
 of the hill where the whole impetus of the 
 coach was at its worst, snap went the chain 
 and away rolled the shoe off down the hill 
 on its own account, of course the sudden 
 release sent the coach with a great lurch on 
 the top of the wheelers, while we all clung 
 on, craning our necks to see what was going 
 to happen next. Quick as thought out flew 
 the whip thong, and in an instant my father 
 had touched the horses all round and we 
 were flying down the hill at racing pace. We 
 got to the bottom all safe and had galloped 
 to the top of the next hill before he took 
 a pull. It was very exciting for the time, 
 and the only thing to be done under the cir- 
 cumstances to keep the horses going quicker 
 than the coach, but not an experiment one 
 w r ould care to try with an inferior coachman. 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 1 1 9 
 
 We have all been mercifully blessed with 
 nerve, and many a time has our courage 
 been severely put to the test. We had a very 
 near shave one day some years ago coming 
 back from Ascot. We were driving all the 
 way home to London after the last day's 
 racing. Our off leader was a very violent, 
 hot horse, called "The Robber," who kept 
 raking and snatching at his bridle from 
 morning till night. As we were passing 
 through a little town — Brentford — we tried 
 to worm our way between the pavement and 
 a baker's cart, which was proceeding slowly 
 in front and giving us very little room to 
 pass. 
 
 This irritated The Robber, who, making a 
 wild bounce forward, wrenched the bridle 
 clean off the wheeler's head ! (His rein was 
 passed through the upright terret on the 
 top of the wheeler's bridle, and must have 
 got caught somehow). The bridle flopped 
 against the pole, which frightened the whole 
 lot and they started off at a gallop. The 
 baker, seeing this, thought we were anxious 
 to race him, and set sail too. Naturally his 
 
1 20 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 increasing pace excited our horses more than 
 ever, and the three with bridles pulled their 
 hardest, while the loose one pegged along 
 with his head in the air. 
 
 The off-horse being bitless, it was only the 
 near-side rein that took effect on their mouths, 
 so the end was that we edged nearer and 
 nearer to the pavement, till, at last, the 
 leaders turned and jumped on to it. At the 
 same moment Captain Carnegy (who, luckily, 
 was just sitting behind the box) leapt to the 
 ground, and made a grab at the loose wheeler, 
 catching him by the nose, and so saved us 
 from some trouble. The leaders, in the 
 meantime, had run straight into a draper's 
 shop, and were curveting about on the top 
 of four or five school children, whom they 
 had hustled to the ground. 
 
 It looked very nasty for a minute, but 
 they were mercifully extracted all unhurt, 
 and a few coins soon mollified their gaping 
 parents. 
 
 Apropos of having the leaders' reins through 
 the top terret, it is supposed to look smarter, 
 but that it is not a very good plan is proved 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 121 
 
 by the aforesaid catastrophe. The rings on 
 the wheelers' throat-lashes are really much 
 better for ordinary use. 
 
 My father used to drive a great deal, and, 
 before he joined the Four-in-hand Club, he 
 used to drive the Exeter and London mail- 
 coachs regularly, three or four times a week, 
 fifty years ago, when he was in the Ninth 
 Lancers. It must have been hardish work, 
 for he drove all night. He started at 
 seven p.m. after his day's soldiering, and 
 drove forty-four miles each way, get- 
 ting back to barracks at seven p.m. next 
 morning-. 
 
 He tells me they only took eight passengers 
 with them, four inside and four out, besides 
 the coachman, and the guard who sat by 
 himself behind, with his feet resting on the 
 lid of the box in which lay the mail-bags, 
 and always armed with two pistols and a 
 blunderbuss, besides the horn. 
 
 There is nothing so pretty as hearing 
 a coach - horn really well blown, and very 
 few indeed can do it properly. It is, 
 unfortunately, a thing which people have 
 
122 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 no conscience about attempting, though their 
 listeners are not left in doubt as to whether 
 they are proficients in the art from the first 
 moment they seize the instrument. How 
 senseless of failure they are, too, as 
 they puff out their cheeks in fatal persever- 
 ance, while tears start from their eyes, and 
 the noise ! — well, that once heard, is not 
 easily forgotten. Though it is not within 
 the province of a coachman, it is well to 
 know how to make " music on three feet 
 of tin," for it is often very necessary to 
 arouse sleepy carters and all the other 
 drowsy souls who encumber the earth and 
 the Queen's highway. 
 
 Like catching a whip, it is an impossible 
 thing to explain, beyond saying that you 
 should begin by putting the tip of your 
 tongue into the mouthpiece, and bring it 
 sharply out again with a little tip sort of 
 sound, and without puffing out your cheeks 
 at all. The higher the notes you want 
 to get, the harder you should compress 
 your lips to the mouthpiece. And after 
 all is said and done, the horn it is that 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. i 2 x 
 
 '&' l * o 
 
 generally retains the mastery, and blessed 
 indeed is he who achieves anything beyond 
 the air generally associated with the decrease 
 of our ancient friend the cow. 
 
 The first tandem I ever drove was a long 
 time ago, when I was quite small, and ex- 
 ceedingly proud I was of my turnout. It 
 was very smart, all ivhite. 
 
 It certainly had the merit of being unique, 
 for my wheeler was a milk-white goat of 
 tender years, while my leader was a dis- 
 reputable - looking old bull-dog of equally 
 snowy hue, and the harness was — well, 
 pocket-handkerchiefs — mostly other people's. 
 
 I drove them in a little go-cart on low 
 wheels, and they went very well, poor 
 little things, though I always had to run 
 in front myself and call them, if I wanted 
 them to go at all fast. 
 
 That tandem came to a very sad and 
 tragic end, for I grieve to say that, after 
 many months of close friendship, my leader 
 found it in his heart to devour the wheeler, 
 which black deed brought my tandem to 
 an abrupt termination. 
 
124 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 Some years ago I got a lot of practice 
 driving a scratch team clown from Banff- 
 shire to Fife. A long journey, which took 
 three days to accomplish, and over a very 
 rough road too, for the first stage was 
 forty miles right across the moors. Splendid 
 wild scenery, but most horrible going, up 
 hills and down dales, through water courses, 
 and scrambling along old stage-coach roads, 
 which could hardly be dignified now by 
 the title of tracks. We scrambled up and 
 down the steepest of mountains, and alto- 
 gether felt rather relieved when at length 
 we deserted the moor and gained the level 
 road quite close to Balmoral. # It is a 
 beautiful road from Balmoral into Brae mar, 
 broad and level, with wide verges of grass 
 on either side, and bordered by fir trees, 
 lighted up here and there by the silver 
 stems and golden leaves of graceful birches, 
 while the river Dee dances along over the 
 
 * Balmoral, with its grey pepperpots and tunnels, standing- 
 out closely against the dark background of pine trees and 
 fir woods, and overshadowed by the high mountain of Loch- 
 na-gar, veiled by the soft, blue haze of distance peculiar 
 to the Highlands. 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 12 
 
 a 
 
 rocks and stones by the side of the road, 
 brawling its running accompaniment to the 
 rattle of the bars and the rhythm of the 
 horses' hoofs. Passing below the " Lion's 
 Face," and just outside the beautiful 
 " policies ' of Invermark, we trotted cheerily 
 into the little town of Braemar, and there 
 put up for the night. 
 
 The second stage was further still, and w T e 
 guessed it at about sixty miles on to Perth. 
 
 Happily the horses came out looking 
 fresh and fit, having fed and rested well, 
 and, by ten o'clock, we were once more 
 on the move. 
 
 This time the roads were better, but 
 still rather elementary in some places, 
 and we encountered several of those old 
 hogbacked bridges which are very trying 
 to the pole, and more than likely to break 
 it as it jerks up, on the top, when the 
 leaders are going down one side, while 
 the wheelers are still climbing up the 
 other. We stopped an hour at Blair 
 Athole on the way, and fed the horses, 
 while w T e ourselves had lunch. 
 
126 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 The team was pretty well steadied by this 
 time, and as easy to drive as a single horse ; 
 though, of course, it needed judgment to 
 keep them trotting steadily on for the ten or 
 eleven hours it took to do the journey. 
 
 The last stage, from Perth to Fife, was 
 on the beautiful old north road all the 
 way, and, as it was only a distance of 
 twenty miles, we did it leisurely, and 
 turned into our own stable - yard about 
 three hours after we started. 
 
 It was great fun, and, after driving for 
 so long, I felt I could have gone on for 
 weeks, but for an acute knowledge of where 
 every bone began and ended in both my 
 arms and back. 
 
 We accomplished that same journey twice 
 that year ; the first time in spring, and 
 again in September we came down after the 
 grouse-shooting with a different team. That 
 second time was not quite such a success, 
 as the cold was something frightful, and the 
 hurricanes that swept over the tops of those 
 moorland hills nearly blew 7 us all away (we 
 had a brake instead of the coach, as being 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 127 
 
 lighter for the horses and handier for the 
 luggage, etc.). The whole of the first two 
 days it poured unceasingly, a good, honest, 
 unrelenting deluge, and I never shall forget 
 our plight on arriving at Blair Athole, soaked 
 to the skin, while my coat pockets were so 
 full of water that my pocket handkerchief 
 was floating about on the surface like a 
 boat on a pond. 
 
 We dried ourselves as best we could at 
 the kitchen and laundry fires of the hotel, 
 but w T e were just as sopped as ever ten 
 minutes after we had started again. How- 
 ever, 'tis a poor heart that never rejoices, 
 and w T e all revived later in the evening, after 
 we had become dry and warm and recurled 
 (which is very important to a lady's happi- 
 ness). Nothing makes one feel so miserable 
 and dejected as the knowledge one is " quite 
 unhanged," as an American was once heard 
 to exclaim, on catching sight of her straight- 
 ened fringe in the looking-glass. 
 
 I have always been very fortunate in my 
 cargo, which makes a vast difference to one's 
 pleasure in driving. 
 
128 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 I do not object to my passengers clinging 
 on to the carriage, nor even to their pinch- 
 ing each other, but people who shiver and 
 squeak, and, worse than all, make clutches 
 at the reins, ought really to be condemned 
 to take the air in handcuffs, or else to 
 walk. 
 
 My particular friends have always rather 
 erred on the side of foolhardiness, and I shall 
 never forget my intense surprise at the rash- 
 ness displayed by a large party at a house 
 where I was staying two years ago. Our 
 host, being the possessor of a very nice team, 
 had promised to drive us over to an Agri- 
 cultural Show about to be held in an adjacent 
 town on a certain Wednesday. We were all 
 looking forward to our outing with great glee, 
 and nothing occurred to agitate our minds 
 until the very day of the anticipated treat, 
 when early that morning a pencil scrawl was 
 brought me from my host saying he had 
 been suddenly called away to attend some 
 important function at the opposite end of 
 the country ; he therefore could not come 
 to the show, but if I cared to take his place 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 129 
 
 and drive his team they should be ready at 
 eleven o'clock. 
 
 I immediately thought — the question was 
 not so much would I like to drive the party, 
 as would they like to be driven by me f 
 
 However, after most anxious and searching 
 inquirings on my part as to whether they 
 were all insured, to my amazement they 
 bravely asserted they would in any case 
 risk it and come ! 
 
 So round came the coach. I must confess 
 to a slight misgiving on beholding that the 
 usual near wheeler 'had been put off leader 
 for a change, and in his stead they had 
 given me an ancient and ill-favoured roan 
 mare, who, I knew, had never been driven 
 in a team before. 
 
 No sign of apprehension escaped me, how- 
 ever, as I clambered sternly on to the box. 
 The start was a little sketchy, as the roan 
 mare began by making a series of low curt- 
 seys, instead of progressing in the ordinary 
 way, while the ex- wheeler was a little out 
 of his element too, as a leader. By the mercy 
 of Providence I succeeded in landing my 
 
 1 
 
1 30 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 o 
 
 coach-load safely throagh the narrow gate- 
 way, and on to the field (filled as it was by 
 a stupid Scotch crowd) and I pulled up in 
 triumph by the barrier of the show-ring. 
 
 I am afraid I must in honesty confess that 
 I did run both my chariot and horses into 
 one wire fence on the way — but the leaders 
 would think, and the horses were all so deter- 
 mined, that they knew the way better than 
 / did, that they had borne us half-way past 
 the corner before I could get hold of them 
 to turn down the way / wished to go. There 
 was no harm done, luckily, and I managed 
 to haul them out again undamaged, and pro- 
 ceeded without further misadventure. 
 
 There are not many things much more 
 calculated to annoy, than a horse who always 
 " thinks" the stupid beast who will stop at 
 every shop passing through his own village on 
 a Sunday, when he must surely see that all 
 the shops are shut, or the animals who turn 
 eagerly down every lane and corner that they 
 come to, albeit they have passed by that road 
 a thousand times before and have never been 
 called upon to turn either to right hand or 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 1 3 1 
 
 to the left. And yet a horse who wont think 
 is almost equally exasperating. Such a beast 
 seems glad enough to lame himself or stamp on 
 one's toes without thinking even for a moment 
 whether it mig;ht be inconvenient or other- 
 wise distasteful to his employers. 
 
 One thing I have forgotten to put down, 
 is what to do in the event of a wheeler lying 
 on the pole (which of course shoves it to one 
 side, and the coach must needs follow in its 
 train). Supposing, then, your off wheeler 
 happens to be performing this antic and is 
 pushing the whole coach by his weight to 
 the left side. You should pull your leaders 
 to the right, and, by so doing, make them 
 pull the pole across until you get the concern 
 straight again. 
 
 The only upset my father ever had with 
 a team was caused by his omitting to do this, 
 and that is why he told me never to forget it. 
 
 I have been implicated in many other 
 strange drives, notably two with tandems 
 and one with three horses abreast. 
 
 I will begin with the last one first, as it 
 was a very transient experience. 
 
132 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 One very snowy winter we had to take 
 recourse to a sleclge to get about the roads 
 at all, and although it is very delightful at 
 first, when one hopes that every night will 
 bring a nice thaw (how the frozen-out fox- 
 hunter prays for that night), after three 
 or four weeks' incessaut frost and snow the 
 novelty of sleighing wears off and one longs 
 for some new excitement. 
 
 We had arrived at these extremes, my 
 father and I, so, struck by a happy inspira- 
 tion, we one clay determined to " yoke ' three 
 ponies abreast in our sledge and see what 
 would happen. We had not long to wait for 
 the result, for no sooner were they harnessed 
 and we leapt in, than away they all went with 
 one accord down the avenue as hard as ever 
 they could rattle, kicking great hard snow- 
 balls into our faces all the way. Down the 
 hill and across the grass like mad things. 
 My father put the whip between his teeth 
 and held on with all his might. I relieved 
 him of his whip and sat tight, until we 
 reached a big beech tree, with a sort of 
 mound round its roots. Here the ponies dis- 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 133 
 
 agreed as to which side they should go, but, 
 to avoid any jealousy or ill-feeling, they 
 settled the question by one going to the 
 right, while the other two elected to take 
 the left hand side of the tree. This fairly 
 finished our flight, for the sledge dashed up 
 sideways against the roots and then turned 
 over like a turtle. Of course we were both 
 precipitated on to the road and were dragged 
 along some little way by the rugs. Fortun- 
 ately there was a gate which happened to 
 be shut a little further on, and this ended our 
 troubles by stopping the ponies altogether, 
 and there they all stood with their heads 
 craning over the fence, while we picked our- 
 selves up and disentangled ourselves from 
 the debris. Luckily the sledge being so 
 very near the ground we were not hurt, 
 and really, being dragged along by the rugs 
 was rather a pleasant sensation. Though it 
 is a good thing to remember, when one is 
 being run away with, under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances in a carriage, to undo the rugs 
 and keep your legs clear, in case of accidents. 
 How often have rugs and petticoats caused 
 
134 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 one to fall headlong in getting in and out 
 of "machines" (as our Scotch people say). 
 Never shall I forget one Sunday morning, 
 on our arrival at the church door, when I 
 proceeded (in all the glory of my Sunday-go- 
 to-meeting apparel) to climb down from the 
 clog-cart, which was pretty high and fitted 
 out with the most inhuman arrangements of 
 steps. I tripped jauntily off the first step 
 towards the second w T hen I became aware 
 that my body was extended on the cold, 
 cold ground, and my head was resting con- 
 fidingly between the horses two hind feet. 
 What had happened ? Oh, only my frock 
 had remained swathed round the top step, 
 that was all. Mercifully the horse was tame, 
 and made no objection to my unexpected 
 arrival among his hind legs. I had to crawl 
 out from under the cart, covered with mud 
 and speechless with fury. Two broken knees, 
 and two scratched palms, gloves destroyed 
 beyond all hope, and my hat jobbed over 
 one eye, everybody in fits of laughter, of 
 course, especially my own family. Why is 
 it, I wonder, that one's own relations always 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. i 35 
 
 display such extreme lack of good taste on 
 such occasions ? I must say I arose from 
 that puddle in anything but a Christian-like 
 and Sabbatical frame of mind. 
 
 I fared better, however, than another young 
 friend of mine, who, in dismounting out of 
 the very same cart, turned a Catherine wheel 
 and alighted on the road with a broken arm. 
 
 Be cautious, therefore, and always scramble 
 out of a cart or carriage backwards, and, if 
 the step be high, see that your dress descends 
 with you and does not remain at the top. 
 
 One of the tandem drives I mentioned 
 happened some two years ago, when my 
 sister and I were staying with some friends 
 about sixteen miles from home. We had been 
 out cub-hunting all morning, found an old 
 fox, and had a capital run, which landed us 
 quite close to our own front door just in time 
 for luncheon. This, of course, we could not 
 resist, so we put our horses in and to our joy 
 discovered a dog-cart had arrived — sent by 
 our kind hostess to convey us back to her 
 house, while the groom led our horses home. 
 Having sent them off under his charge we 
 
136 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 proceeded to put the harness horse into his 
 dog-cart, and were just about to start when 
 a telegram arrived from my father (who was 
 also away from home), ordering our groom to 
 take a horse over to K — for him to hunt next 
 day. 
 
 As " K " happened to be the very place we 
 were starting for, we determined to take his 
 horse over ourselves. But how ? that was the 
 question. 
 
 We did not quite like the idea of tying him 
 on behind, for well we knew he would be 
 certain to tumble over something during the 
 journey and contrive to break his knees. 
 
 Why not tie him on in front we both ex- 
 claimed, with that " one great mind which 
 jumps." 
 
 Of course that was obviously the way to 
 get him over those intervening sixteen miles 
 of hill. 
 
 As he was the bigger of the two, and had 
 never been driven in tandem before, we 
 thought we had better put him in wheeler. 
 Hastily pulling out the horse which was 
 already harnessed we proceeded to try and fit 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 137 
 
 our own rotund steed between the shafts. 
 His figure, however, was hardly slim enough 
 for the position, and he began to resent the 
 suggestion with some asperity. 
 
 Satisfied that we should do no good with 
 them that way on, we reversed the order ; 
 replacing the original horse in the wheel, 
 we hitched our obese animal on in front. We 
 then started. I must say he fired some most 
 alarming salutes with his heels going down the 
 avenue, and terrified us for the safety of our 
 borrowed wheeler, but the ensuing hills very 
 soon settled him down and brought him to 
 reason, which was well for us, as we had not 
 started on our journey till pretty late, and it 
 was rapidly becoming dark. Needless to say 
 we had no lamps, the road was horribly rough 
 and mountainous, and we had still many miles 
 to go. At last we turned in to the lodge gates 
 and up the avenue at K — . It was dark enough 
 outside on the road, where I could just see 
 my wheeler's outline in the gloom, but here 
 among the trees (for the approach is more of 
 a wood than an avenue) it was so pitch dark 
 I positively could not see my own hand in 
 
138 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 front of me. Having no light, we proceeded 
 by faith, and appeared to be getting on ex- 
 tremely well, when suddenly, with an awful 
 jolt and a bump, the whole concern stopped 
 short and I nearly flew off my perch with 
 the jerk. My sister was out like a shot and 
 got to the wheeler's head. He was still there, 
 that she could feel ; groping a little further 
 she collided with the leader, he was there 
 too, that was a comfort, anything further she 
 could not discover without the aid of a light. 
 
 Fortunately we had provided ourselves with 
 some matches just in case, and, on striking 
 one, we discovered both horses standing on 
 three legs, one of the leader's traces having 
 caught round his off hind leg, while the 
 other trace was twisted over the wheeler's 
 near fore leg! They both behaved like true 
 Britons, and waited patiently until we got 
 them disentangled and set straight again, 
 when we set off once more and managed 
 to get to our destination without further 
 mishap. 
 
 The last exciting; drive I had with a tandem 
 was again with my father, and again in the 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 139 
 
 snow." The roads were barely passable with 
 snowdrifts piled up on either side six foot 
 high or more. It so happened that Colonel 
 Gardyne had been staying with us, and it 
 behoved him to get away by a certain train 
 on a certain day. 
 
 Inexorable to our entreaties to postpone 
 his departure, we were obliged to accede to his 
 request that he might be borne somehow to 
 the station. As the roads were very bad 
 and too heavy with snow for one horse, we 
 selected another out of the stable and put him 
 on in front ; we then scrambled into the dog- 
 cart and prepared for the worst. As it hap- 
 pened, however, we were not prepared for 
 what followed. The leader had not been in 
 before and did not fancy the game, nor did 
 he approve of the snow walls ; notwithstanding 
 this we got to the station fairly intact and 
 deposited our guest in safety. 
 
 We had not proceeded far on our home- 
 ward journey when a great black puffing 
 engine made its appearance round a corner, 
 with crimson eyes, and snorts, and noise, and 
 all the honours attendant on a perambulating 
 
140 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 thrashing machine. Horrid things they are at 
 the best of times, but more especially objection- 
 able when one has a couple of three-cornered 
 horses, one behind the other. Of course the 
 effect of this apparition was wild confusion, 
 the leader waltzed round and round till he 
 got tied up into a knot, then set to work, and 
 kicked himself free, breaking every stitch of 
 harness on his body. 
 
 We had no extra tackle (which was foolish), 
 therefore the only thing to be done was to get 
 him home. Luckily we were not far away, so 
 I scrambled on to his back and rode him, using 
 the remains of the pad as a pommel and got 
 him in all safe. 
 
 My father having some business in the 
 neighbouring town went on in the cart alone. 
 Soon he overtook an ally, who, bent on the 
 same errand, was stumping bravely through 
 the slush (having wisely refrained from taking 
 out his own horses on such a road). On being 
 offered a lift he mounted gladly, thankful to 
 curtail his disagreeable tramp, and reassured 
 by the sight of a single and confidential- 
 looking quadruped. His joy, however, was 
 
Team and Tandem Driving. 141 
 
 shortlived, for the very next turn happened to 
 lead straight up to our park gates. Dobbin 
 (being one of the genus I object to so strongly 
 who "think") instantly thought, and made 
 a dive for the corner. The wheel, colliding 
 violently against the curb-stone, precipitated 
 the unfortunate passenger headlong into a 
 snow-drift, where he remained half buried, 
 with only a large pair of feet flapping in the 
 air to indicate the spot where the casualty 
 had occurred. 
 
 Eosie Anstruther Thomson. 
 
TIGERS I HAVE SHOT. 
 
"TIGEKS I HAVE SHOT." 
 
 By Mrs C. Martelli. 
 
 My personal experiences of tiger-shooting in 
 India have been neither on a large scale nor 
 of a very heroic and exciting nature ; yet, 
 such as they are, I gladly place them upon 
 record for the sake of those who may not 
 have had the good fortune to see sport of 
 this particular kind. Tiger-shooting, how- 
 ever, has been so well and so often described 
 that I cannot hope to be able to tell anything 
 of a novel character about it. 
 
 It has been my good fortune to "assist" 
 (in the French sense of the word) at the death 
 of five tigers. And here I should premise 
 that, according to the laws of Indian sport, a 
 tiger is considered the trophy of the gun that 
 first hits it, whether that shot prove fatal or 
 not. As will be seen presently, I succeeded in 
 killing the third of the five, but it was my 
 husband's tiger and not mine, as my first shot 
 
 K 
 
146 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 missed it. I did not kill the first and second 
 of the five, but they were my tigers because I 
 was the first to hit them. In the case of the 
 fourth tiger I was the first to hit, and with a 
 second shot I killed it ; but the tiger was 
 mine by virtue of the first shot, not the 
 second. This is a not unfair rule, because 
 the first shot often proves fatal, even though 
 for a time the tiger manages to get away, 
 and if some rule of the kind were not in 
 existence, and the tiger were supposed to 
 belong to the gun that appeared to administer 
 the cowp de grace, there would be a great 
 deal of indiscriminate firing, which would re- 
 sult, to say the least of it, in the skin being 
 hopelessly ruined. 
 
 But to come to my story. In January 
 1887, my husband, Colonel Martelli, who was 
 at the time Political Agent and Superinten- 
 dent of the Estates of Eewa, Central India (the 
 Maharajah being a minor), was making his 
 annual tour, and we were in camp at Go- 
 vindghur, about fourteen miles from the capital. 
 There were with us my sister, the agency sur- 
 geon and the usual tribe of camp followers. 
 
Tigers I have shot. 147 
 
 After we had been in camp about a week, a 
 shikari brought us news that there was un- 
 questionably a tiger not many miles away. 
 To discover more exactly where he was, 
 buffaloes were tied as bait to trees in four or 
 five places, at a radius of three or four miles 
 from the camp, and we waited in much ex- 
 citement for further intelligence. As ap- 
 parel of a very noticeable or attractive 
 character is obviously unsuited to a tiger-hunt, 
 I gave my native tailor overuight some plain 
 cotton material, and he presented it to me in 
 the morning, dyed green and made up into a 
 serviceable dress. He had also covered my 
 Terai sun-hat with the same material. Early 
 in the morning word came into camp that we 
 were to be on the alert, and, about ten a.m., 
 news reached us that the tiger had been 
 seen. 
 
 We started off immediately, my husband 
 and I on one elephant, and the doctor and my 
 sister on another. Seated behind us in the 
 howdah was a shikari, carrying our guns. 
 My weapon was a 450 double express rifle, by 
 Alex. Henry. 
 
148 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 We had had Chota Hazrie, so took a lunch- 
 breakfast with us. Passing on our way what 
 we thought would be a charming spot for our 
 dejeuner, we left our servant Francis there 
 with our hamper. Imagine our disgust when, 
 upon reaching this spot, hungry and expect- 
 ant, on our return, we found that Francis 
 had disappeared, and with him all traces of 
 the hoped-for meal. It turned out afterwards 
 that some bears had come unexpectedly upon 
 the scene, and Francis had, not altogether 
 unnaturally, sought refuge in flight. 
 
 Ignorant of the fate of our breakfast, how- 
 ever, we pushed on, and about two miles from 
 camp met the head shikari — Mothi Singh by 
 name. Acting under his instructions we dis- 
 mounted and followed him through the jungle. 
 We pushed along what professed to be a path, 
 but of which all I can say in its favour is that 
 it was slightly better than, the jungle of grass 
 and underwood through which it passed, more 
 than once indeed boughs and branches had to 
 be cut down to make it possible for my sister 
 and myself to get along. 
 
 We at length reached a rock, fifteen or 
 
Tigers I have shot. 1 49 
 
 twenty feet in height, on the summit of which 
 Mothi Singh placed us, and past which the 
 tiger would be driven. I was to have first 
 shot. The beaters, three hundred or four 
 hundred in number, now bes;an their work, 
 shouting, beating drums and tom-toms, blow- 
 ing bugles, firing blank cartridges, and 
 steadily pressing forward in our direction. 
 We, of course, maintained the most profound 
 silence, and watched with the deepest interest 
 for the appearance of the tiger. As we waited, 
 all sorts of creatures, scared by the beaters, 
 passed us — pig and deer, pea-fowl and jungle 
 fowl, the majestic sambhur, and the pretty 
 nilghai, not to mention foxes and jackals, went 
 by within shot, but for to-day, at anyrate, they 
 were safe. At last came the tig;er. He ad- 
 vanced like an enormous cat, now crouching 
 upon the ground, now crawling forward, now 
 turning round to try and discover the mean- 
 ing of the unwonted noise behind him. When 
 he was about eighty yards from us I fired and 
 hit him on the shoulder ; then the others fired, 
 and the tiger bolted. At this moment Hera 
 Sahib, the commander-in-chief of the Rewa 
 
150 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 army, and who had been directing "the beat," 
 came up on an elephant, and, as he had 
 brought with him a spare elephant, my hus- 
 band mounted the latter, and they went off 
 together in search of the tiger, leaving us 
 upon the rock. 
 
 Two hours later they came upon the 
 wounded tiger hiding in the jungle. The 
 moment he saw that he was discovered, he 
 charged Hera Sahib's elephant, and the latter, 
 being a young animal, bolted. The tiger then 
 turned and charged the elephant my husband 
 was riding, which stood his ground. The 
 tiger, charged underneath the elephant, but 
 fortunately my husband got a snap-shot at 
 him and rolled him over. He crept into 
 the jungle again, however, but was now 
 past serious resistance, and although he 
 made a brave attempt to reach his enemies, 
 he was easily despatched. He measured 
 over nine feet in length. 
 
 My husband's tour over, we returned to our 
 head -quarters at Eewa, and a very few days 
 later, in the dusk of the evening, news came 
 that another tiger had been seen in the same 
 
Tigers I have shot. 1 5 l 
 
 *<3 
 
 neighbourhood as that in which we shot the 
 first. My husband and I started off at three 
 the next morning in a dog-cart ; our horse was 
 only half broken in, and I was driving. 
 About eleven and a half miles from Govind- 
 ghar our steed deposited us in a ditch, and 
 we were compelled to walk the rest of the 
 way there. At Govindghar elephants were 
 in waiting for us, and we made our way 
 ill much the same fashion as on the previous 
 occasion to the rock of which I have already 
 told. The beat, too, was precisely similar to 
 the former one. Presently the tiger ap- 
 peared. I was so struck by his magnificent 
 appearance, that, although I was to have 
 first shot, I waited so long that eventually 
 my husband and I fired together. The tiger 
 facing us, I fired again, and then, in his rage, 
 he charged straight at the rock on which we 
 were standing:. As he came on I fired a third 
 time, and hit him between the shoulders. He 
 disappeared somewhere at the base of the 
 rock, and, although he was out of sight, 
 we could hear him growling with pain. We 
 did not dare, of course, to come down from our 
 
152 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 rock, as we had no idea where he was, or 
 to what extent he was crippled, but, after 
 waiting about half-an-hour, Hera Sahib 
 came up on an elephant and killed him. 
 It turned out that the tiger had crept under 
 another rock at the base of that on which 
 we were standing, and was too badly 
 wounded to come out and face his foes. 
 This tiger w r as a much handsomer, and a 
 larger one than the first. 
 
 Not long after the above, my husband 
 was appointed Political Agent, Eastern States, 
 Rajputana, which consists of Bhurtpore, 
 Dholepore, and Karowlie. Each state has 
 its own Bajah. I did no more tiger- 
 shooting until the early part of the year 
 1891. 
 
 In February then we went to Karowlie, 
 and on our arrival there we were met by 
 the Maharajah, who at once informed us 
 that news had just arrived that a tiger 
 was in the neighbourhood, and courteously 
 asked us to accompany him in pursuit of 
 it. We gladly accepted this invitation, and 
 were told to hold ourselves in readiness, as 
 
Tigers I have shot. 153 
 
 a gun would be fired from the palace as soon 
 as definite information arrived, and it would 
 then be necessary to start at once. 
 
 The gun was fired at about noon and off 
 we went, the Maharajah and his retinue, and 
 our two selves. We were conducted through 
 very thick jungle to the Maharajah's shooting- 
 box, about nine miles distant. We were able 
 to ride only a portion of the way, part of 
 the remainder I was carried in a "Tonjon' 
 (sedan chair), and for the rest of the journey 
 I had to walk and struggle through the dense 
 jungle as best I could. The shooting-box we 
 found to consist of a small stone tower, built 
 on the edge of a ravine. We were posted 
 upon the top of the tower, and the tiger was 
 to be driven up the ravine and within shot 
 of our rifles. 
 
 The Maharajah is a very keen sportsman 
 and a capital shot, but with great politeness 
 he insisted upon my firing first. Alas, when 
 the moment arrived — and the tiger — the 
 jungle was so thick that I could hardly see 
 the animal, and, I regret to say, I missed him 
 altogether. My husband fired and wounded 
 
154 L a dies in the Field. 
 
 the tiger severely ; I then fired again and 
 killed him. 
 
 News was brought to us not to leave our 
 post as there was another tiger in the jungle. 
 The Maharajah had been much put out at 
 my missing my first shot and so losing the 
 tiger, but insisted courteously on my having 
 an opportunity of retrieving my disaster ; of 
 course I was only too glad to avail myself 
 of his kindness. 
 
 A few minutes later the second tiger ap- 
 peared, and, getting a better view of him 
 than of his predecessor, I succeeded in hit- 
 ting him in the chest. The Maharajah then 
 fired and put a second bullet into him ; I 
 fired and gave him his coup de grdce. 
 
 Within a week news was brought to 
 Karowlie that another tiger had made his 
 appearance, this time about ten miles away, 
 and in quite another direction. The whole 
 country in this neighbourhood was cut up 
 by ravines, and when we arrived at the 
 place indicated to us, we found that there was 
 no rock which we could turn into a citadel, 
 no haudy tree from whose branches we might 
 
Tigers I have shot. 155 
 
 fire upon the foe, and of course no shooting- 
 box ; and, as in addition, it was quite impos- 
 sible to bring the elephants along, we had to 
 take our stand on foot and hope for the best. 
 Should the wounded tiger charge us, we 
 should have to make sure of stopping him 
 before he could reach us. With us, on this 
 occasion, were three young officers, who had 
 never been present at a tiger-hunt, and who 
 probably had never seen a tiger out of the 
 Zoological Gardens. Accordingly, they were 
 allowed to draw for choice of places and for 
 first shot. They naturally selected the coign 
 of vantage, and between them slew the tiger. 
 1 did not even see him till he was dead 
 They went off immediately, in a great state 
 of elation ; but the Maharajah told me that 
 there was a panther in the jungle. Presently 
 the animal came in sight with a tremendous 
 rush, and I fired, wounding him severely ; 
 but although we traced him for some miles 
 we saw no more of him and he got away. 
 
 This is all I have to tell. If, from the 
 description I have given, anyone should be 
 inclined to say that the tiger does not appear 
 
156 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 to have much chance of escape, the answer 
 is that it is not intended that he should have 
 any. Tigers are shot in India, not as game is 
 in England for hunting, to give amusement 
 to men, horses and dogs, not as in pheasant 
 or partridge shooting, with a remote re- 
 ference to the demands of the table, but to 
 save the lives of the natives and their cattle. 
 If you don't kill the tiger he will kill you. 
 But although the odds are on the shikari 
 and against the tiger, whether you fire 
 from the back of an elephant, from the top 
 of a rock, or in the branch of a tree, there is 
 always room, unfortunately, for a misad- 
 venture, and consequently tiger-shooting will 
 always be a useful school for endurance, judg- 
 ment and self-reliance. 
 
 Kate Martelli. 
 
RIFLE-SHOOTING. 
 
RIFLE-SHOOTING. 
 
 By Miss Leale. 
 
 At the Bisley Meeting of 1891, I took 
 part in some of the competitions open to 
 all comers. The measure of success which 
 I achieved has gained a publicity for which 
 I was scarcely prepared, and has brought 
 around me a group of correspondents who 
 have plied me with questions as to my 
 experience in rifle-shooting, and the rise 
 and progress of my devotion to an accom- 
 plishment so unusual for ladies, and even 
 deemed by many to be somewhat out of 
 their reach. 
 
 I purpose, therefore, to put a few notes 
 together, in which I shall endeavour to 
 answer some of the questions proposed to 
 me, and to relate such passages of my ex- 
 perience as may serve to encourage those of 
 my own sex who may have some ambition 
 
 in this direction. 
 
 159 
 
160 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 It was a little more than four years ago 
 when I first handled a Martini-Henry rifle. 
 I was looking on at the shooting one after- 
 noon at the Guernsey "Wimbledon," and 
 wondered if it was a very difficult thing to 
 hit the target, which appeared to me to 
 be such a mere speck when seen from so 
 great a distance. I had, some time before 
 this, fired a few shots with a fowling-piece 
 at an impromptu target, but rifle-shooting 
 looked to me far more real and interesting. 
 At length I succeeded in persuading my 
 father to allow me to try my hand at a shot 
 with a rifle. 
 
 I remember that there was some discussion, 
 at that time, about the recoil, but as I was so 
 very ignorant of the management and powers 
 of the rifle, I did not give this really serious 
 question the necessary attention. I believe 
 that had I heard, at this early stage, as much 
 about recoil as I have since, I should probably 
 have been afraid to shoot with a Martini. 
 
 A certain militia man, who is now one of 
 our best shots, related to me a curious 
 incident which happened to him when he 
 
Rifle-Shooting. 1 6 1 
 
 first fired with a service rifle. He was 
 shooting in the prone position ; and, after 
 pulling the trigger, he heard a great noise, 
 and immediately there was a good deal of 
 smoke about ; but the rifle had disappeared. 
 On looking round, however, he saw his rifle 
 behind him ! He had been resting the under 
 part of the butt lightly on his shoulders, and 
 holding the rifle loosely ; thus the force of the 
 recoil had actually driven it past him over his 
 shoulder. 
 
 I have heard of many other cases of the 
 recoil becoming dangerous ; but I believe it 
 is from fear of being "kicked" that recruits 
 fail to hold their rifles properly while pulling 
 the trigger. 
 
 In my own case, certainly, " ignorance was 
 bliss"; for, in firing my first shot, I was 
 enabled to give my whole attention to keep- 
 ing the rifle steady, and placing it firmly 
 against my shoulder for that purpose alone 
 undisturbed by any fear of recoil. And I 
 believe that this absence of fear is the chief 
 reason why I have been able to use a Martini- 
 Henry rifle without suffering from the recoil. 
 
 L 
 
1 62 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 Thinking from the experience of my first 
 shot that shooting was easy, I was anxious to 
 go on with it. Many experienced shots 
 volunteered information which was very 
 helpful ; but I soon discovered that I was 
 wrong in thinking that rifle-shooting was 
 merely a matter of seeing the bull's eye over 
 the sights. The first difficulty was that of 
 keeping the rifle steady. I had to learn 
 exactlv how to hold it and for this I had to 
 study position. 
 
 I had fired my first shot in the kneeling 
 position. I did not then know of any other, 
 except the standing and lying down. The 
 former I could not manage, as the rifle was 
 too heavy to hold up without any support 
 for the arms ; and the lying down position 
 seemed to me, then, to require a great deal 
 of practice. This conjecture has been well 
 justified by my subsequent experience. I 
 have never since fired from the kneeling 
 position, as a much better one was recom- 
 mended to me, namely, the sitting position. 
 In this way I can have a rest for both arms, 
 which is an advantage over the other 
 
Rifle-Shooting. 163 
 
 method in which it is only possible to rest 
 one. 
 
 Having chosen a position, I found that it 
 needed a great deal of studying. It was then 
 that I discovered another great difficulty, i.e., 
 that of pulling the trigger without disturbing 
 the aim. I received some advice on this 
 subject which at first sounded rather curious. 
 I was told to squeeze the trigger "like I 
 would a lemon " and to let it go off without 
 my knowing. This accomplishment requires 
 a great deal of practice, but is well worth the 
 trouble of learning ; for I am confident that 
 it is the great secret of good shooting. 
 
 During my first few months of shooting, 
 I only used to think of taking a correct 
 aim at the bull's eye, and trying to keep 
 still while pulling the trigger. I was so 
 absorbed in this effort, that it did not occur 
 to me for some time that there was much 
 more than this dexterity to be gained in 
 order to be sure of making a good score. 
 There remained the great question of find- 
 ing the bull's eye. 
 
 This, of coursce, involves the scientific 
 
164 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 part of rifle-shootirjg ; and although, at 
 first, I was alarmed at the difficulty of the 
 subject, I soon saw that the shooting would 
 become tame and monotonous without it. 
 
 The range where I was in the habit of 
 practising (and still do practise) is near 
 the sea. The targets have the sea for a 
 background, and, as is often the case near 
 the sea, we have a great deal of wind. It 
 was quite easy to understand that the 
 wind would affect the course of the bullet ; 
 but it did not turn out to be so easy as 
 it appeared, to calculate in feet and inches 
 how much allowance should be made for 
 this source of disturbance. Fortunately 
 1 'young shots" are not expected to be able 
 to find out this for themselves by the 
 long and painful discipline of repeated 
 failure ; and it is always easy for them 
 to obtain advice from persons on the range 
 who have had more experience than them- 
 selves. I was very fortunate in that way 
 myself, and feel very grateful for the good 
 instruction I have received from several 
 " crack-shots," 
 
Rifle-Shooting. 1 6 5 
 
 There are two things to be considered — 
 the elevation and windage. 
 
 The elevation does not vary so much as 
 the windage. Having once found the nor- 
 mal elevation of a given rifle for the 
 different ranges, it will not afterwards 
 need very great alterations. But the differ- 
 ent effects of wind, light, and atmosphere 
 upon it are interesting, and require care- 
 ful attention. 
 
 If the wind is blowing straight down 
 the range from the targets, it will natur- 
 ally increase the resistance for the bullet. 
 Also, by retarding its speed the trajectory 
 will be lowered, thus causing the shot to 
 strike below the spot aimed at. To coun- 
 teract this the aim must be taken higher, 
 but the rifle is so constructed that by rais- 
 ino- the slide of the backsight a little, aim 
 may be taken at the original spot. 
 
 When the wind is blowing towards the 
 targets, from the firing point, it has little 
 or no effect upon the bullet, as the speed 
 of the latter is so much greater than that 
 of the wind. A side wind will slightly 
 
1 66 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 alter the elevation of the bullet, in a ratio 
 to its strength. 
 
 Most good shots agree that it is safer 
 always to take up the same amount of 
 foresight into the alignment ; as by 
 taking a large foresight at one time and 
 a small one at another, one is apt to get 
 confused, especially when other matters 
 have to be considered at the same time. 
 But it must also be remembered that the 
 different degrees of the light's intensity 
 have a marked effect upon the appearance 
 of the foresight, and must be allowed for. 
 If the light is very dull, the foresight 
 will not be very distinctly seen ; and, 
 unconsciously, more of it will be brought 
 up. This has the effect of bringing up 
 the muzzle end of the rifle, and of giving 
 the bullet a higher trajectory, thus causing 
 the shot to strike high. But, on the 
 other hand, if the light is bright the 
 foresight is easily seen, and less of it 
 is unconsciously taken up, so causing 
 the shot to drop. These differences in 
 the appearance of the foresight are cor- 
 
Rifle- Shooting. 167 
 
 rected by raising the backsight in a bright 
 light, and lowering it when dull. 
 
 Mirage and refraction are very trouble- 
 some matters to deal with, for the bull's 
 eye appears to be where in reality it is 
 not. And it is almost impossible to 
 ascertain the allowances which should be 
 made for this source of error without 
 the advantage of a trial shot. 
 
 The condition of the atmosphere as to 
 temperature and humidity has much to 
 do with the fouling inside the rifle. In 
 hot, dry weather it is apt to get hard 
 and dry. After a few shots have been 
 fired, it cakes and fills up the grooving 
 of the rifle. Consequently the amount of 
 the spin of the bullet is affected, often 
 causing the shots to drop, and spoiling 
 all chance of accurate shooting. This can 
 be avoided by blowing down the rifle 
 after each shot, when the moisture of 
 the breath will greatly improve the con- 
 dition of the encrusted barrel. Many rifle 
 shots have indiarubber tubes for this 
 purpose, and blow down the barrel 
 
168 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 through them from the breech end. 
 Some competitors even take more trouble ; 
 for, after each shot, they shut the breech, 
 and get up from their position in order 
 to blow down from the muzzle end. 
 This method involves more exertion, but 
 it is evident that any moisture blown 
 down with one end stopped, and thus 
 permitted to accumulate, must of necessity 
 be more effective in cleansing the barrel. 
 
 In warm, damp weather, the fouling 
 becomes moist and greasy, letting the 
 bullet slip through easily. These differ- 
 ences in elevation caused through foul- 
 ing can also be allowed for by altering 
 the elevation on the rifle between the 
 shots. 
 
 An ingenious little instrument called 
 the Vernier is used for measuring the 
 elevation. When it is considered, that, 
 at 600 yards distance from the targets, 
 the difference of Troth of an inch on the 
 backsight will be equal to half a foot on 
 the target, it will evidently be of the 
 greatest importance to be able to adjust 
 
Rifle- Shooting. 1 6 9 
 
 the sights accordingly. For this purpose 
 Verniers are made so delicate as to move 
 the backsight through such a small space 
 as the rioth of an inch at a time. By 
 this means of adjustment, should a shot 
 strike straight above the bull's eye, you 
 have only to notice the exact amount of 
 the error in inches, and then the eleva- 
 tion can be lowered xioth of an inch, or 
 a "degree" as it is called for every six 
 inches the shot is above the mark ; pro- 
 vided always that the other conditions 
 are the same as before. 
 
 Theoretically, wind is far more easy to 
 deal with than elevation ; for, if the wind 
 blows across the targets from the left, it 
 would naturally drive the bullet to the 
 right. Therefore, by aiming in the direc- 
 tion the wind is blowing from, proper 
 allowance can be made. The difficulty 
 lies in the practical part, i.e., of judg- 
 ing exactly how far the bullet will be 
 driven from its true course. Practice is 
 the only possible teacher in this matter ; 
 and it is wonderful to see how some ex- 
 
1 70 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 perienced shots will estimate the strength 
 of the wind, acting only on their own 
 judgment, and succeed in hitting the bull's 
 eye at first shot, and especially when we 
 learn that at 600 yards as much as fif- 
 teen feet of windage is sometimes required. 
 But at times there seems to be a certain 
 amount of chance attached to the ''find- 
 ing of the bull's eye." I have heard 
 of a competitor who had fired several 
 shots and could not find the bull's eye. 
 He was firing in a competition called 
 " Cartons," in which the most central hit 
 takes the highest prize. After several 
 unsuccessful shots, he wished to alter some 
 part of his rifle and for this purpose 
 turned it upside down. In doing so he 
 accidently pulled the trigger. This turned 
 out to be a singular instance of good 
 luck, for the shot not only was fired 
 without harming anyone, but actually 
 hit the very centre of the target ! This 
 undesigned shot proved to be the best 
 Carton of the meeting, bringing the com- 
 petitor a prize of several pounds. I have 
 
Rifle- Shooting. 1 7 1 
 
 often heard it said on the range that 
 " there is no luck in shooting except 
 bad luck ; " and it certainly is very dis- 
 appointing to lose several points in a 
 competition before you succeed in finding 
 the bull's eye ; but it is still more dis- 
 appointing, when, having found it, the 
 wind keeps changing its force or direc- 
 tion, and so increasing your perplexity. 
 The only consolation in this disagreeable 
 experience is, that a great deal more is 
 ]earnt from one bad score under these 
 circumstances, than from many good ones 
 made with a steady wind. 
 
 All my remarks have referred to target- 
 shooting only, in those cases where com- 
 petitors are not hurried, but can take 
 their own time to paint their sights and 
 adjust them with " machines," carefully 
 marking the allowance for windage on 
 their sights, so that they may aim at 
 the bull's eye every time, and have no 
 more to think of but holding the rifle 
 steady. I use all these helps myself, 
 finding them a great advantage ; and I 
 
172 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 believe that studying all these minute 
 but necessary particulars is a good train- 
 ing for those who may have to use their 
 rifles for more serious purposes than com- 
 peting for prizes at rifle meetings. For, 
 although in practical shooting they will 
 be obliged to use the rifle just as it is 
 served out, they will prove themselves to 
 be experienced shots, and know how to 
 handle their weapons with that skill which 
 is always the result of careful training 
 and practice. 
 
 Winifred Louisa Leale. 
 
DEER-STALKING AND DEER- 
 DRIVING. 
 

DEER-STALKING AND DEER-DRIVING. 
 
 By Diane Chasseresse. 
 
 Deer-stalking is like marriage, it should 
 not be " enterprised nor taken in hand un- 
 advisedly or lightly," nor should it be 
 undertaken by those who are weak and 
 delicate, for it entails many hardships and 
 much exposure to wet and cold. 
 
 Imagine the state of a thorough - bred 
 racehorse, if it were kept standing for 
 hours in a snowstorm, with no clothing on, 
 directly after it had run a race. Yet, a 
 like sudden change from violent exercise 
 taken in great heat, to hours of immov- 
 ability in the most bitter cold, is of constant 
 occurrence when stalking deer in the late 
 autumn, in the Highlands of Scotland. 
 For instance, the stalker may have to 
 toil with wearied feet up a steep hill, 
 under the burning rays of an October 
 sun, when, suddenly and unexpectedly, 
 
 175 
 
176 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 some deer will come in sight, hurry- 
 ing over the ridge in front of him 
 to seek for shelter from an impend- 
 ing storm. Ketreat is impossible, there 
 is no time even to choose a hiding- 
 place; the stalker must throw himself face 
 downwards, most likely in the middle of 
 a bog, and remain there without moving 
 hand or foot as long as the storm lasts and 
 the deer remain in sight. In the meantime 
 the sun has vanished, and the day has 
 changed from broiling heat to piercing cold ; 
 and, while the wind gets up and the hail 
 beats pitilessly on his prostrate form, the 
 stalker must be ready, with numbed and 
 aching finger to pull the trigger of his rifle, 
 the moment the darkness has lifted suffi- 
 ciently, for him to make out which are the 
 largest and most shootable deer. 
 
 It will be seen from this that deer-stalking 
 is not all pleasurable excitement, and that 
 those who go after deer must be prepared 
 to endure a certain amount of physical dis- 
 comfort. Pipes cannot be smoked, nor can 
 whisky be imbibed within sight and within 
 
Deer- Stalking and Deer- Driving. 1 7 7 
 
 shot of deer ; neither can sandwiches be 
 munched, nor may you even take a drink at 
 a burn. The soul of the sportsman must 
 soar above hunger and thirst — such luxuries 
 as two o'clock lunch and five o'clock tea 
 are not for him— even the simple use of a 
 pocket-handkerchief is denied him under 
 certain circumstauces. 
 
 The paraphernalia needed by the stalker 
 is very limited in extent. It consists of a 
 rifle, a dozen cartridges, a telescope, and a 
 long knife. Stout, easy-fitting nailed boots 
 are de rigueur for walking ; also thick 
 stockings — not necessarily rough or irritating 
 to the skin — and neutral - coloured clothes, 
 light in weight. Nothing else is essential. 
 I have given elsewhere a detailed description 
 of the dress I myself found most suitable 
 for the hills, so I will only repeat here 
 that it should be of either drab or grey 
 cloth — water-proof, but not air-proof — with 
 a dash of pink, green, or orange in it 
 according to the prevailing colour of the 
 ground over which you have to stalk. A 
 long grey macintosh of the best quality 
 
 M 
 
178 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 can be carried in the forester's pocket and 
 put on during heavy storms. This should 
 have a separate hood, which may be used 
 either to sit on, or as a protection to the 
 head and neck from rain and wind. 
 
 The fewer people the stalker has to accom- 
 pany him the more likely he is to get sport. 
 One man to carry the rifle, or stalk for him, 
 is sufficient. It is quite unnecessary to 
 have a second forester with dogs, as they 
 only disturb the deer and are seldom 
 required. 
 
 Foresters, whether from an imperfect 
 knowledge of English or from " thinking 
 the more," are usually a silent and uncom- 
 municative race. The sort of way an 
 ignorant — or supposed to be ignorant — 
 sportsman is treated when sent out with 
 an experienced stalker for the first time, 
 is much after this fashion. 
 
 The forester shoulders the rifle and goes 
 up the side of a hill with quick, elastic step, 
 and you follow with aching muscles and 
 panting breath. At last there is a halt, 
 and he takes out his glass and looks care- 
 
Deer-Stalking and Deer-Driving. 1 79 
 
 fully over the ground, first searching the 
 places where deer are usually to be dis- 
 covered, then scanning the rest of the vast 
 expanse of hill and valley spread out before 
 him. You, also, take out your glass and 
 strain your unaccustomed eye in lookino- 
 for deer. After a time you find some, and 
 wonder if by chance they have escaped the 
 keen eye of the forester, for he has shut his 
 telescope, and is silently descending the hill 
 again. 
 
 " Sandy ! " you call out. 
 
 " Surr — mem ? " correcting himself as he 
 remembers your sex. 
 
 " Did you see those deer ? " 
 
 " Hwhich deer was it ? " 
 
 "There are some deer feeding on that 
 green patch, didn't you see them ? " 
 
 " Ou— ay." 
 
 " But wouldn't they do to go after ? 
 
 " They're no verra bug, but I'm thunkin 
 one of them micht do," and Sandy moves 
 on ao-ain. 
 
 " But, Sandy ! " 
 
 " Suit — mem ! " 
 
180 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 " Why can't we go after the one that 
 might do f " 
 
 " We'll require to go round a bittee and 
 come doon on them." 
 
 To " go round a bittee ' you find to 
 your cost means to go right back to the 
 bottom of the hill whence you came, to 
 tramp miles round the base of the mountain, 
 and finally to climb up over the top so as 
 to come down on the deer. On the way 
 you come across some small staggies which 
 decline to move, being quite well aware that 
 they are not worth shooting. Fearing they 
 will spoil all your sport by moving the other 
 deer, Sandy lies still and taps two stones 
 together to frighten them a little, but they 
 still refuse to go away and only stare 
 stupidly at you. 
 
 "Ye'll jist wave yer hwhite mop," whispers 
 Sandy. 
 
 You wonder what he means, as you 
 do not generally carry mops about the 
 hills. Then Sandy, seeing your bewilder- 
 ment, makes a gesture with his hands 
 over his face in the most solemn manner, 
 
Deer-Stalking and Deer-Driving. 1 8 1 
 and you are reminded of the children's 
 
 game :- 
 
 " I wipe my face with a very good grace, 
 Without either laughing or smiling." 
 
 and produce your white pocket-handkerchief 
 — which certainly, there is no denying, has 
 been used as a mop pretty often on the 
 way up — and waving it at the deer, have the 
 satisfaction of seeing them trot away in a 
 direction where they will do no harm. 
 
 After that Sandy says nothing more, 
 but goes trudging on ahead till he stops to 
 take the rifle out of its case and load it. 
 Then he begins to crawl very slowly and 
 cautiously, taking care not to scrape the 
 heather, or knock the stones, and you do 
 exactly the same till you join him behind 
 a big boulder ; when he puts the rifle in 
 your hand, saying in a whisper, — 
 
 "Noo then, yell tak yon beast that's 
 feeding to the west." 
 
 And you look up excitedly, not knowing 
 in the very least the whereabouts of the 
 deer ; but while you are trying to make 
 
1 82 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 out which is the "beast that is feeding to 
 the west/' a greater beast that is feeding 
 to the east, in the shape of a hind, has 
 already made you out, and the whole herd 
 of deer have galloped away without giv- 
 ing you the chance of a shot. You turn and 
 look blankly at Sandy, and Sandy looks dis- 
 gustedly at you, and behind your back 
 he exclaims, that you "jist mak' him 
 seeck." 
 
 Little of the science of deer-stalking can 
 be learnt from following blindly behind a 
 silent forester ; though no doubt a novice 
 would get more deer and disturb less 
 
 o 
 
 ground by putting himself entirely into 
 the hands of a first-rate stalker than by 
 attempting to go his own way, and acquir- 
 ing experience at the expense of repeated 
 failure. 
 
 The two great difficulties with which 
 the amateur has to contend are, the wrong 
 impression given by the appearance of 
 ground when seen from a distance, and 
 the imperfect knowledge of the direction 
 from which the wind will blow when he 
 
Deer-Stalking and Deer- Driving. 1 83 
 
 gets within reach of deer. The other diffi- 
 culties, such as keeping out of sight of the 
 deer he wishes to shoot, and avoiding other 
 deer or sheep, can be overcome, with practice, 
 by any intelligent person ; but to know 
 the direction in which certain winds will 
 blow in certain places, is a constant puzzle 
 even to the oldest and most experienced 
 sportsman. 
 
 If a valley lies east and west, and the 
 wind blows east or west, you can generally 
 count on being able to stalk wp-wind. But 
 should the wind be north in a valley lying 
 east and west, it will constantly blow 
 south on the southern side of a northern 
 mountain, or it might blow east or west. 
 There is only one manner of ascertaining 
 the direction of a light and doubtful breeze, 
 and that is by continually plucking little 
 bits of the fluff off your homespun coat, 
 and allowing them to float about in the 
 
 air. 
 
 Deer are far more frightened at getting 
 the wind of a human being than they 
 are at seeing him ; consequently they will 
 
184 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 gallop away faster, and run to a much 
 greater distance after scenting a person 
 than they will after seeing him. They are 
 also far more frightened at sight of a man 
 walking upright at a considerable distance, 
 than at seeing one crouched up and immovable 
 quite near them — though in the latter case he 
 may be so close that his face, hands, and 
 even the rifle are discernible. 
 
 When a seal is doubtful about anything 
 floating on the water, it will take a long 
 circuit round, and keep out of shot until it 
 has got to windward of the suspicious object. 
 Once to windward all doubt is at an 
 end, and, if the object should prove to be 
 an enemy, the seal will immediately dis- 
 appear under water. But, fortunately for 
 sportsman, deer are not clever enough to 
 adopt this plan, or we should find stalking 
 even more difficult than it is now. For 
 if deer catch sight of a suspicious-looking 
 object, the hinds generally come a step or 
 two nearer to it, instead of going round to 
 get the wind, and when they have quite 
 decided that it looks like something un- 
 
Dccr-Stalking and Deer- Driving. 185 
 
 canny, they will go off with a bark, occa- 
 sionally stopping to look back. In the 
 meantime the stags will be preparing to 
 rise, so you must be ready to seize your chance 
 of a broadside shot — for a stag lying with 
 face towards you, w T ill generally, on ris- 
 ing, turn his body broadside before bolting 
 away. Should the deer, however, get a 
 puff of your wind, it is of no use to wait ; 
 you must either take a snap-shot at their 
 retreating heels, or refrain from firing at 
 all, and trust to getting another stalk when 
 they have settled down again later in the day. 
 You can never, under any circumstances, 
 take a liberty with the wind ; but, on wet 
 and stormy days, it is extraordinary how you 
 may crawl about in full view of deer with- 
 out frightening them, so long as they do not 
 happen to be looking at you while you are 
 actually moving. To begin with, the wet 
 deadens any sound you may make in crawl- 
 ing ; ferns do not crackle, nor does the grass 
 rustle, and, as there is no light and shade, 
 objects are less distinctly seen. But a sky 
 line must always be avoided when possible, 
 
1 86 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 or, if not, it should be crossed with the utmost 
 care by keeping flat and moving slowly ; as 
 deer are quick to note any strange excrescence 
 on the edge of a hill. 
 
 There are only two really important things 
 to avoid when out stalking. One is the 
 unnecessary disturbance of deer by firing 
 shots late at night, or by careless stalking — 
 both of which will send them off the ground 
 you are on, and over to that of your neigh- 
 bour — and the other is shooting at deer when 
 the chances are more in favour of wounding 
 them than of killing them outright. 
 
 Sport is sometimes cruel — though never so 
 cruel as nature, as any observer can bear 
 witness — but that is no reason why sportsmen 
 should be careless about giving unnecessary 
 pain. 
 
 There are so many different sorts of rifles 
 turned out by the various gunmakers, that 
 it would be difficult to say which kind is the 
 best. I have not had a large experience, but, 
 having tried a single-barrelled Henry — with 
 which I regularly missed — a double-barrelled 
 Lankaster, and a Purdey, besides the various 
 
Dccr-Stalking and Deer-Driving. 187 
 
 kinds of small rifles made by Rigby, Adams, 
 and Holland, I do not hesitate to say that 
 the best shots I ever made were at running 
 deer with an old-fashioned muzzle-loader, with 
 solid conical bullets ! 
 
 One of the great charms of deer-stalking, 
 besides the delightful feeling of being out all 
 day long in the fresh air surrounded by the 
 most beautiful scenery, is, that there is so 
 much variety in it, as no two stalks are ever 
 in the least alike. One might go season 
 after season over the same ground, but it 
 would be impossible to shoot two deer under 
 precisely similar conditions. 
 
 A beginner can scarcely understand the 
 fascination which deer-stalking exercises over 
 a more practised sportsman. When a novice 
 is taken out, the stalker is naturally anxious 
 to give him every chance, and, at the same 
 time, is not over-particular about the size of 
 the deer — which may possibly be missed ; so 
 he generally manages to bring him up to 
 within easy distance of a single stag, standing 
 broadside. The novice knows nothing of 
 the intricacies of the stalk, or of the difficulties 
 
1 88 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 which have been overcome. He has, per- 
 haps, been taken up one deep burn, and 
 brought down another on the same hillside, 
 possibly without having had any climbing, 
 crawling, or wading to do ; after which he is 
 told to look between some tufts of heather 
 over the edge of a bank, when he will see the 
 stag feeding just below. He then raises up 
 the loaded rifle, and, feeling rather as though 
 he were going to shoot at a red cow, calmly 
 takes a deliberate aim, with his elbows resting 
 on the bank, and hits the beast right through 
 the heart. The whole business has appeared 
 so easy that he cannot understand the ex- 
 citement of the stalker over it ; and he feels 
 rather ashamed than otherwise of the fuss 
 that is made about him on his return 
 home. But, the next time he goes out, he 
 may have to shoot immediately after a stiff 
 climb uphill ; the deer is further off than he 
 thinks, and is very much the same colour as 
 the ground ; he is out of breath, and more 
 careless about his aim, and the consequence 
 is that he misses it clean, and fires the second 
 barrel with no better result. After this, the 
 
Deer -Stalking and Deer- Driving. 189 
 
 novice begins to see that it is not alto- 
 gether so tame and easy a business as it 
 appeared at first ; and, when next he gets 
 a chance at a stag, his heart will commence 
 to beat, he will feel nervous about his 
 aim, his knees will tremble and his hand 
 shake, and he will at last feel that there 
 is some excitement about deer-stalking after 
 all. 
 
 Deer-driviug is by no means such good 
 sport as deer - stalking. When deer are 
 driven, if they go the way that is intended 
 — which depends chiefly on the weather and 
 not at all on the skill of the sportsmen — all 
 that is necessary to obtain a large number 
 of stags is to keep a cool head, and to take 
 a steady aim. But these qualifications are 
 usually just those which are conspicuous by 
 their absence at the generality of deer drives ; 
 consequently, the number of shots that are 
 fired at deer — all within easy distance — in 
 proportion to the number of deer slain or 
 wounded, is quite remarkable. 
 
 I have often wondered how soldiers behave 
 on a fie]d of battle, where there is danger to 
 
190 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 life and limb, added to the noise, smoke, 
 bustle and excitement. Do they ever hit a 
 man at all except by accident? And is it 
 likely that the time, ammunition and money 
 annually wasted on firing at a mark will 
 teach men not to lose their heads on a 
 field of battle, with the enemy advancing 
 towards them, when they cannot even 
 keep cool at a deer drive, where there is 
 absolute silence and stillness, and the 
 deer are often too frightened and bewil- 
 dered to do more than stand still to be 
 shot at ! 
 
 It would be very interesting to keep a 
 record of the number of drives which come 
 off properly, compared with those which are 
 failures ; and of the number of shots fired at 
 each drive, in proportion to every deer killed. 
 I also fancy it would improve the sport in a 
 forest far more if a record were kept of all 
 the misses which were made out stalking, 
 than if a high average of weights were in- 
 sisted on, as this can only be accomplished 
 by sparing the old deer, which, being past 
 their prime and deteriorating every season, 
 
Deer-Stalking and Deer-Driving. 1 9 1 
 
 should certainly be killed at the expense of 
 the average. 
 
 Deer-driving, more than any other kind 
 of sport, depends on weather. When out 
 stalking one generally succeeds in getting 
 more deer on a stormy than on a fine day, 
 but with driving it is just the reverse. The 
 day cannot be too fine, as the mist and 
 rain, which so constantly accumulate about 
 high mountains, are the chief reasons why 
 drives are such frequent failures. 
 
 The way a drive is arranged is as follows. 
 Every available stalker, forester and gillie is 
 sent out before daylight to make an immense 
 circle round the corries and mountains from 
 which the deer are to be driven. Unfor- 
 tunately the mist usually comes low down in 
 the night, and the men cannot possibly tell, 
 when they make their early start, whether 
 it will lift or not. 
 
 Deer have certain passes which they use 
 when going from one corrie to another, and, 
 if they are disturbed, they make for one of 
 these passes wp-wind. But when everything 
 has been settled, the guns are placed in a 
 
192 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 pass which is doivn wind to the deer, and 
 out of sight of the corrie, into which they 
 are being collected by the beaters. 
 
 It is a very difficult matter to force deer 
 to go down-wind, as it is against; all their 
 instincts to do so, and, if they have had 
 much experience, they will be perfectly 
 aware that men with rifles are awaiting 
 them on the ridge, and, instead of going 
 forward over the pass, they will break back 
 at the last minute and rush through the 
 beaters — who can only pelt them with sticks 
 and stones — rather than face the known 
 danger of the o;uns in front of them. 
 
 In a deer drive it is necessary for the 
 day to be clear, in order that the beaters 
 may see each other as well as the deer. It 
 is equally important that the deer should 
 see the beaters, as these latter are placed 
 as stops to prevent them going to the 
 passes up- wind where there are no guns. 
 If the deer are quite determined not to go 
 down-wind over a pass, nothing that the 
 beaters can do to force them will make any 
 difference, and the drive is consequently 
 
Deer-Stalking and Deer-Driving. 19 
 
 -> 
 
 spoilt. If the wind changes, or does not 
 blow fair, the guns know at once that their 
 chance of sport is over, for deer would 
 rather face an army which they can see, than 
 a puff of wind from an unknown foe. 
 
 Shooting at driven deer is much less 
 fatiguing than stalking. The drive is fixed 
 to come off at a certain hour, and the 
 sportsmen ride ponies or w T alk to their posts, 
 each carrying his own rifles — as the foresters 
 are all employed in heating. The ponies 
 are then left in charge of some boys, and 
 each man is allotted a post in which he can 
 make himself comfortable, put on his cloak 
 and eat his lunch ; pipes also are not for- 
 bidden for a while. But, after a bit, he 
 must, on no account, move or leave his place, 
 even if there is snow on the ground and he 
 is perished with cold, for it is very possible 
 that a few deer, not belonging to the drive, 
 might be feeding just below the ridge of the 
 hill, and, seeing other deer disturbed and 
 coming towards them, they would probably 
 feed quietly over the pass close to all the 
 guns. If they were to see anyone move, 
 
 N 
 
194 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 they would at once bolt back whence they 
 came, and every deer in sight would know 
 that they were fleeing from danger, and 
 would refuse to come up the pass. But if 
 they were allowed to move quietly on till 
 all the guns were passed, they would soon 
 disappear, and their fresh tracks would be of 
 use in keeping the deer which followed from 
 being suspicious of any lurking danger. 
 
 The first deer to appear over a pass are 
 usually a hind and calf; and hearts begin to 
 beat furiously as, after many hours of wait- 
 ing, they walk slowly past the line of guns, 
 pricking their long ears forward and staring 
 right and left suspiciously. Suddenly the 
 hind gives a start — she has come across a 
 footprint ; she sniffs at it, quickens her pace, 
 and trots aw r ay with her little calf beside her. 
 All at once she gets a puff of the wind and 
 away she goes — bark, bark, bark — but as 
 there are no other deer in sight she can do 
 no harm. Then some more hinds come on, 
 followed by a few small staggies, and the 
 excitement among the guns becomes intense 
 as they know now that the drive has begun. 
 
Deer-Stalking and Deer -Driving. 1 95 
 
 As the first deer get the wind and begin to 
 gallop, a grand Eoyal appears. He passes 
 most of the rifles scathless — for there is no 
 greater crime than to fire at one of the first 
 few deer and so turn all the others back — 
 but the last gun, seeing; that there are now 
 plenty of good stags over the brae, lets fly at 
 him and may bowl him over (this is purely 
 imaginary, for my experience is that he does 
 not bowl him over), then crack, crack, go the 
 other rifles as barrel after barrel is fired — two 
 or three rifles to each man, and two barrels to 
 each rifle — and the fat and heavy deer come 
 panting by, bewildered by the incessant 
 firing and the whizz of the bullets about 
 their ears, driven forward by the shouts of 
 the beaters behind, who are pressing them on 
 to their death, and terrified when some mag- 
 nificent beast makes a plunge forward on re- 
 ceiving its death-wound, and tears up the soft 
 ground with its hoofs as it rolls over and 
 over, its thick horns crashing against the 
 rocks. Then the last and heaviest of the 
 deer come rushing down the pass followed 
 by the beaters, capless and perspiring. The 
 
196 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 ground is strewn with dead and dying, the 
 sportsmen leave their posts and each claims 
 his deer (many more claims being made for 
 the large than for the small ones) ; the dogs 
 are let loose after the wounded, and thus the 
 most successful drive of the season comes to 
 an end. 
 
 The ponies which have conveyed the sports- 
 men up the mountain now come in useful to 
 carry home the dead beasts ; and, in the 
 evening, after dinner, the ladies, in their 
 dainty dresses and flashing diamonds, come 
 out across the yard to inspect the trophies of 
 the chase which are laid out on the ground 
 in front of the larder ; while the weird and 
 fantastic scene is lighted up by blazing 
 torches held aloft by kilted Highlanders. 
 
 Diane Chasseeesse. 
 
 
SHOOTING. 
 
SHOOTING. 
 
 By Lady Boynton. 
 
 11 The reason firm, the temperate will, 
 Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill." 
 
 " A mingled yarn — good and ill together." 
 
 A few years ago a " shooting-lady " was al- 
 most as much a vara avis as the Great Auk ; 
 if here and there one member of the sex, more 
 venturesome than her fellows, were bold 
 enough to take to the gun in preference to 
 the knitting needle, she was looked upon 
 as most eccentric and fast, and underwent 
 much adverse criticism. Now, however, nous 
 avons change tout cela. Ladies who shoot, 
 and who shoot well, too, are springing 
 up on all sides, and the clamour raised 
 by their appearance is gradually subsiding. 
 There are still dissentient voices here and 
 there, it is true, voices which proclaim aloud 
 
 that women have no place in the covert 
 
 199 
 
200 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 and among the turnips, and that the cruelty 
 of the sport should be an insuperable objec- 
 tion to their joiniug in it. A discussion of 
 all these pros and cons is, however, outside 
 the scope of these notes, we have simply to 
 deal with facts as they stand, and, undoubt- 
 edly, the "shooting-lady' is now as much 
 an established fact as is her sister the 
 " hunting-woman." 
 
 That a woman who is fond of sport need 
 lose nothing in grace, charm, or refinement, 
 we have ample evidence to show. She does 
 not necessarily become masculine either in 
 manner or conversation ; but she should, 
 nevertheless, endeavour to master the rudi- 
 ments of whatever sport she engages in ; 
 and it is with the hope of assisting some 
 of my fellow - sportswomen to accomplish 
 this, that I here record some of my experi- 
 ences, not omitting my mistakes, and adding 
 a few hints to beginners; though I regret 
 that I have no moving accidents by flood 
 or field, nor " hairbreadth 'scapes " to recount ! 
 
 There is certainly a pleasant amount of 
 excitement about shooting — not perhaps 
 
Shooting. 20 1 
 
 equal to that afforded by " forty minutes with- 
 out a check," but quite enough to make 
 one willing to brave the elements, even on 
 a raw November morning, and to stand with 
 one's finders aching with cold behind a fence 
 waiting for the advent of that little brown 
 bird who will flash past you like a meteor — 
 alas ! too frequently only to leave a feather 
 or two floating behind him, and then to 
 continue his course rejoicing ! 
 
 I well remember the first running; rabbit I 
 ever killed. I was armed with an old- 
 fashioned muzzle loader — we were walking 
 round the hedgerows in some pastures. 
 The rabbit was sitting in a tussock 
 about thirty yards from the fence. I 
 cautiously advanced in such a manner as 
 to get a crossing shot. The rabbit was put 
 up, and I, taking a very deliberate aim, 
 had the intense satisfaction of seeing him 
 double up just as he reached the fence ! 
 What a moment! No 'Royal' killed at 140 
 yards could have afforded more delight than 
 did that wretched little bunny. 
 
 Of course, previously to this, I had fired 
 
202 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 at a mark and at sitting objects, in order to 
 get into the way of handling the gun, aim- 
 ing and so forth. 
 
 It is of the first and greatest importance 
 on beginning to shoot to learn to be care- 
 ful, and the golden rule is, always to 
 handle a gun as though it were loaded 
 and cocked ; the habit once acquired, it is 
 just as easy to carry a gun safely as not. 
 
 Coolness and confidence are equally neces- 
 sary — but practice alone will bring these. 
 A beginner is apt to be flurried when the 
 game gets up ; she sees nothing else, thinks 
 of nothing else but killing it, and takes 
 no account of the beaters, guns, or dogs 
 surrounding her. She points the gun at 
 the bird or beast, and perchance (horrid 
 thought !) follows it all round the compass 
 with her finger on the trigger ! Wherefore 
 it is better she should not take the field 
 with other guns (unless she wishes to make 
 enemies of her best friends), until she has 
 full command over the gun and can put 
 it up easily and quickly. If the game gets 
 up too near, she must wait till it has 
 
Shooting. 203 
 
 reached the proper distance, then raise the 
 £im to her shoulder and fire at once. 
 This is the only way to become a quick 
 and steady shot. 
 
 Apropos of following ; once when grouse- 
 driving I was placed in a butt between two 
 other guns, both of them strangers to me. 
 They looked very much askance at me, and 
 I fancy one of them thanked his stars he'd 
 insured his life the w^eek before ! The 
 one in the left-hand butt at once moved 
 both his " guards" on to the side of the butt 
 next me. Soon three birds, the forerunners 
 of the army to follow, came over between 
 my right-hand neighbour and me, two of 
 them making straight for his butt. To 
 my surprise he did not fire. The third 
 bird I hit with my first barrel, and seeing 
 as it passed me that it had a leg down, I 
 turned round and killed it going away from 
 me with the left barrel. After the drive 
 was over I asked him why he hadn't shot. 
 "To tell you the truth," he said, "I was 
 watching you. I was a little anxious to 
 see if you would follow that bird, but after 
 
204 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 that, I saw you were all right!' My left- 
 hand warrior confessed, later on, that he 
 had been peppered by the gun on the other 
 side of him ! Whereat I chuckled ! 
 
 As to the gun used, everybody must 
 please themselves. I shoot with a 20 -bore, 
 the left barrel slightly choked, weight 5 lbs., 
 and loaded with 2J drachms black powder, 
 f oz. No. 6 shot. For covert shooting, 
 E. C. or Schulze is better, it is quicker up 
 to the game and almost smokeless. 
 
 A 16-bore makes killing easier, but the 
 extra weight, at the end of a long day, 
 counterbalances this advantage. I shot with 
 a 28-bore belonging to a friend one day 
 last winter, and was perfectly astonished 
 at the way and the distance it killed, but 
 you have to be very dead on to make 
 good practice with so small a bore. A gun 
 to fit you should come up to the shoulder 
 quite easily, and, without any adjusting 
 you must bring the sight straight on to the 
 object. If you see all down the barrel, the 
 stock is too straight, if, on the contrary, you 
 see nothing but the breech, it is too much 
 
Shooting. 205 
 
 v> 
 
 bent and you will shoot under everything. 
 But I would advise the beginner to go to 
 the " Worth " of London gunmakers (Mr 
 Purdey), put herself in his hands, and, 
 like the sartorial genius of Paris, he will turn 
 her out fitted to perfection. An indiarubber 
 heel-plate is sometimes a wise precaution, 
 to avoid a bruised shoulder and arm, which 
 if you happen to be going to a ball, does not 
 perhaps add to your beauty ! 
 
 The left hand should be held well forward. 
 This gives much more power over the gun, 
 it also looks much better. With regard to 
 the position of the feet, it is well to recollect 
 that elegance is compatible with ease ! 
 
 It is a matter of some difficulty, at first, to 
 judge distance correctly. The novice gener- 
 ally begins by blowing her game to bits, to 
 make sure of killing it, I suppose, though in 
 reality this makes it far harder. The other 
 extreme, firing very long shots, is equally re- 
 prehensible, as nine times out of ten the game 
 goes away w T ounded, even when occasionally it 
 is dropped by a fluke. Any distance between 
 twenty and forty yards is legitimate, though the 
 
206 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 latter is rather far for a hare going away from 
 you. 
 
 Never hand the gun cocked to an attendant, 
 and always unload when getting over a fence, 
 and on putting the gun down for luncheon. 
 
 Now for a few words on aiming ; but I must 
 here protest that this does not profess to be a 
 shooting " Bradshaw," but merely, as it were, 
 an A B C guide ! 
 
 For a beginner, no doubt the easiest way, 
 in the case of any ordinary crossing shot, is to 
 put up the gun on the object, then fling it- 
 forward as far in front as is thought fit, and 
 fire, but, after a time, I think this kind of 
 double action will no longer be found neces- 
 sary. The gun will be put up at once in front 
 of the game, the eye taking in by instinct and 
 practice the line of the object, and experience 
 telling how far in front of the game to hold 
 the gun. This is certainly true with regard 
 to ground game. Quite high-class aiming is 
 to put the gun up a little before the head of 
 the object, and swing the gun forward with 
 the bird, pulling the trigger tvithout stopping 
 the gun. This is beyond doubt the best and 
 
Shooting. 207 
 
 most correct method, but not easy to ac- 
 complish. 
 
 I take it for granted that you shoot with 
 both eyes open. 
 
 It is impossible to lay down a rule how far 
 in front to hold the gun for a crossing shot. 
 It depends upon the pace the bird is going, 
 and its distance from you, but, roughly speak- 
 ing, for an ordinary shot at twenty-five yards, 
 the object's own length in front may be 
 enough (but I write this with some diffidence). 
 For a driven bird or high pheasant, my 
 experience is, you can't get too far ahead ! 
 For a rabbit or hare going away from you 
 aim at the back of its head ; coming towards 
 you, at its chest. 
 
 One of the greatest charms of shooting 
 is its " infinite variety." Let us take for ex- 
 ample, to begin with, a day's covert shooting. 
 
 The waggonette with its pair of matched 
 bays (of course w T e have the best of every- 
 thing — on paper) stands at the door. You 
 pack yourselves in, with a goodly amount 
 of rugs and furs, and away you go, ten 
 miles an hour, through the park. There has 
 
2b8 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 been a sharp frost, the cobwebs are all 
 glistening in the sun, and the road rings 
 under the horses' feet in a manner ominous 
 to the lover of the chase proper, but music 
 in the ears of the shooting-man. The leaves 
 are mostly off the trees, but here and there 
 some few remaining ones shiver gently to 
 the ground ; the bracken is brown and 
 withered, and rustles crisply as the deer 
 brush through it, startled at the sight of 
 the carriage. The wind is keen and biting, 
 but you turn up your fur collar and defy 
 " rude Boreas." 
 
 Arrived at the starting point you take, 
 on your way to the first cover, two or three 
 rough grasses. The rabbits having been 
 previously ferreted and otherwise harried, 
 have forsaken their strongholds, and have, 
 so to speak, gone under canvas — they are 
 dotted about all over the fields in seats. 
 (It is astonishing how easy it is, until the 
 eye becomes practised, to miss seeing a 
 rabbit in a seat.) You form a line, a beater 
 or two between each gun across the pasture. 
 Before you have gone ten yards, a rabbit 
 
Shooting, 209 
 
 jumps up from underneath a beater's foot, 
 and makes tracks for the nearest hedgerow 
 or plantation, only, however, to fall a victim 
 to the right-hand gun. The report alarms 
 another, who, without delay, seeks to follow 
 in the steps of his predecessor, but a charge 
 of No. 5 interferes with his scheme, and he 
 also succumbs to fate. 
 
 Soon the fun becomes "fast and furious," 
 four or five rabbits are on foot together, 
 necessitating cjuick loading and steady shoot- 
 ing. Here one breaks back through the 
 line, and comes past you full tilt. You take 
 a rapid look round to see that no unlucky 
 beater lurks in the rear picking up the 
 wounded — bang — ah ! you didn't allow for 
 the oblique line of bunny's course, and were 
 half a foot behind him. The second barrel, 
 however, stretches him a corpse on the field 
 of battle. 
 
 At the end of the pasture runs a narrow 
 strip of plantation. Here the shooting is 
 more difficult. The brambles are very thick ; 
 you have to take snap-shots as the rabbits 
 bounce from one thicket to another. You 
 
 
 
2io Ladies in the Field. 
 
 must fire where you think he'll be (not where 
 he is), but even this manoeuvre is not always 
 successful, as that old man who has been 
 acting as stop at the end of the strip will 
 tell you. " Nobbut eleven ! " says he, " there's 
 bin fortty shots fired ! Ah coonted 'em !" Con- 
 science-striken, you look at one another, and 
 positively tremble before the scorn depicted 
 in that old man's eye. 
 
 Then comes a small outlying covert. Two 
 guns placed back to back command the end — 
 the rest go w 7 ith tbe beaters. A wood-pigeon 
 is the first to make a move, which it does 
 with a tremendous bustle and fuss ; it affords 
 a pretty shot, coming straight overhead, and 
 falls with a " plop ' behind you. Next to 
 take alarm is an old hare. She scampers 
 through the brushwood, staring behind her, 
 and makes for her usual exit — a hole in the 
 hedge, little knowing, poor thing, that she is 
 galloping straight into the jaws of death, for 
 your neighbour's unerring weapon promptly 
 does its duty. 
 
 Then, maybe there arises a wild shout, a 
 discordant " Tally-ho ! " followed by sundry 
 
Shooting. 2 1 1 
 
 yells of all shades, and a banging great fox 
 breaks away across the stubble, disappearing in 
 the fence only to emerge again in the pasture. 
 I think a fox one of the most beautifully- 
 proportioned animals there is. He is built 
 on such racing lines ! with those long gallop- 
 ing quarters, that deep chest, and muscular 
 neck. Look at him as he steals away over 
 the grass without an effort ; he doesn't appear 
 to be going any pace at all, and yet in a 
 moment he is out of sight ! No hurry, my 
 friend ! You may take it easy to-day, but 
 in a very short time you'll dance to another 
 and a quicker tune played by Yl\ couple of 
 the " best hounds in England ! " 
 
 Meanwhile, four rabbits have taken advan- 
 tage of your soliloquy to make good their 
 escape. You fire a snap-shot at one as he 
 bobs into the fence. "Mark over," and a 
 pheasant whirrs over the top of the wood. 
 You hastily cram a cartridge into your gun, 
 raise it and pull, only to find that you've 
 forgotten to cock the right barrel ; you change 
 on to the left trigger, but this has put you 
 "of}','' the pheasant goes scathless, and is 
 
1 1 2 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 handsomely knocked down by your com- 
 panion-in-arms. Perhaps this is an argument 
 in favour of a hammerless gun ! 
 
 On reaching the big covert the aspect of 
 things is changed. The guns are placed at 
 intervals down the rides, and the beaters go 
 to the far end to bring it up towards you. It 
 is always well to let the guns on either side 
 of you, know your whereabouts, both for your 
 own sake and theirs. Only let us hope you 
 won't meet with the treatment that a friend 
 of ours received. He was placed next to a 
 very deaf old gentleman. Aw r are that he 
 could not make him hear by calling, or (which 
 is much preferable) by whistling, he took out 
 his handkerchief and waved it to attract his 
 attention. The old gentleman caught sight of 
 it, put up his gun and took a steady and 
 deliberate aim at it ! You can easily imagine 
 how our friend ducked and bobbed, and threw 
 himself prone on the grass round the corner ! 
 
 After a pause a distant shot is heard, then 
 another, and soon you hear the tap tap of 
 the beaters, and " Kabbit up," " Mark over," 
 " Hare to the right," may be continually 
 
Shooting. 2 1 3 
 
 heard, unless, as in some places, silence is 
 enjoined on the beaters. "Mark cock ,: is, 
 however, everywhere an exception to this 
 rule, and at the magic words, every gun is 
 on the alert ! I never understand why a wood- 
 cock should be productive of such wild ex- 
 citement and reckless shooting as it generally 
 is ! The bird flits through the trees a little 
 above the height of a man's head, looking as 
 easy to kill as an owl, but it is a gay deceiver, 
 for barrel after barrel may discharge its deadly 
 contents at it, and still that brown bird flits 
 on as before, turning up and down as it goes. 
 Of course (on paper) you are the one to kill it, 
 when you are loaded w 7 ith congratulations — 
 their very weight testifying how unexpected 
 was the feat. Rather a doubtful compliment ! 
 Half the wood being shot, the guns move 
 round to the outside. What has hitherto 
 been done, has been chiefly a means to an 
 end. The pheasants have been driven with 
 the object of getting them into this par- 
 ticular corner. Possibly the wood stands 
 on the slope of a hill ; this gives the best 
 shooting, as the birds fly over the valley 
 
214 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 affording high and difficult shots, especially 
 if coming down-wind. I think there is no- 
 thing prettier than to see real high birds 
 well killed. They fall like stones, with 
 heads doubled up — not waving down, wings 
 and legs out-stretched like the arms of a 
 semaphore ! 
 
 " Thick and fast they come at last, 
 And more, arid more, and more." 
 
 But do not let this tempt you into firing 
 too quick. Pick your bird and kill it, though 
 I grant you this is not an easy thing to do. 
 Many men seem quite to lose their head at a hot 
 corner. They fire almost at random, though, 
 in the case of a few birds coming, they will 
 scarcely miss a shot. 
 
 By this time it is growing dusk. The 
 December afternoon is closing in. There is a 
 mist rising from the river, the air feels damp 
 and chill, and your thoughts turn to a bright 
 fire, a tea-gown, and those delicious two hours 
 before dinner. 
 
 To my mind, grouse-shooting is the cream 
 of sport. To begin with, Scotland itself has a 
 
Shooting. 2 1 
 
 v> 
 
 charm which no other country possesses. 
 Then it is such nice clean walking! How- 
 ever much you may curtail your skirt, mud 
 will stick to it, but on the heather there is 
 nothing to handicap you — you are almost on 
 a level with MAN ! 
 
 From the moment vou leave the lodge on a 
 shooting morning, your pleasure begins. The 
 dogs and keepers have preceded you. A 
 couple of gillies are waiting with, the ponies. 
 You mount, and wend your way over the hill 
 road, ruminating as you go, on the possible 
 bag, and taking in, almost unconsciously, the 
 bewitching feast that nature with such a 
 bountiful hand has spread before you. 
 
 On either side a wide expanse of moorland, 
 one mass of bloom, broken here and there by a 
 burnt patch or some grey lichen-covered 
 boulders. The ground gently slopes on the 
 right towards a few scrubby alders or birches, 
 with one or two rowan trees, the fringe of 
 green bracken denoting; the little burn 
 which to-day trickles placidly along, but in a 
 spate becomes a ronring torrent of brown 
 water and white foam. Beyond is a wide 
 
216 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 stretch of purple heather, then a strip of 
 yellow and crimson bents, dotted with the 
 white cotton-flower. The broken, undulating 
 ground, with its little knolls and hollows, tells 
 of nice covert for the grouse when the mid-clay 
 sun is high, and the birds are. as an old 
 keeper used to say, "lying deid in the 
 heather." 
 
 Further away rise the hills in their stately 
 grandeur, green, and olive, and grey, and 
 purple ; how the light changes on them ! One 
 behind the other they lie in massive splendour, 
 and, more distant still, the faint blue outline 
 of some giant overtops the rest, with here and 
 there a rugged peak standing out against the 
 sky. And, pervading all, that wonderful, ex- 
 hilarating, intoxicating air ! 
 
 Bounding a bend in the road, you come 
 across three or four hill-sheep, standing in the 
 shade of the overhanging bank. Startled, 
 they lift their heads and gaze at you, then 
 rush away, bounding over the stones and 
 heather with an agility very unlike the 
 " woolly waddle " of our fat Leicesters. 
 
 Anon, in the distance, you see Donald and 
 
S hooting. 2 1 7 
 
 the clogs on the look-out for yon, the clogs 
 clustered round the keeper, a most pictur- 
 esque group. 
 
 AY hen you reach them and dismount, a 
 brace of setters are uncoupled and boisterously 
 tear around, till peremptorily called to order. 
 You take your guns, etc., the dogs are told to 
 " hold up," and the sport begins. 
 
 In a few moments " Rake ' pulls up short, 
 and stands like a rock ; " Ruby ' backs him. 
 You advance slowly, always, when possible, at 
 the side of the clog standing, and pause for 
 your companion to come up. Rake moves 
 forward, a step at a time, his lip twitching 
 and his eyes eager with excitement ; another 
 second and the birds get up. Seven of them. 
 (Here let me give the beginner a hint. Take 
 the birds nearest you and furthest from your 
 companion, never shoot across him, don't 
 change your bird, and don't fire too soon.) 
 You re-load and walk up to where they 
 rose, there will probably be a bird left. Up 
 he gets, right under your feet. You let him 
 go a proper distance, then neatly drop him in 
 the heather. 
 
2i8 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 This kind of thing is repeated again and 
 again, varied by an odd " bluehare," or a twist- 
 ing snipe. The dogs quarter their ground 
 beautifully, it is a pleasure to see them work, 
 for grouse are plentiful, the shooting good, 
 and they are encouraged to do their best. 
 Perhaps there may be a bit of swamp sur- 
 rounded by rushes in which an occasional 
 duck is to be found. The dogs are taken 
 up, and the guns creep cautiously forward, 
 taking care to keep out of sight till within 
 shot. You then show yourselves simul- 
 taneously on the right and left, wdien the 
 birds will generally spring. Kemember to 
 aim above a duck — because it is always 
 rising. 
 
 Later on in the season grouse get wilder, 
 and the shooting consequently more amus- 
 ing. The old cocks grow very wary, but 
 sometimes, coming round the brow of a hill, 
 you light suddenly on a grand old fellow, 
 who, with a " Bak-a-bak-bak," rises right 
 up into the air, turns, and goes off down- 
 wind forty miles an hour. Catch him under 
 the wing just on the turn — a lovely shot. 
 
Shooting. 2 1 9 
 
 If you miss him he won't give you another 
 chance that clay ! 
 
 By way of variety you are sometimes 
 bidden to assist at a neighbouring " drive ' 
 for black game and roe. On one occasion 
 we were asked to join a party for this pur- 
 pose. We set off with an army of guns 
 and beaters, some of the former decidedly 
 inexperienced ones. It is, of course, essential 
 in roe-driving, that you should, when in posi- 
 tion, keep absolutely still. It was known that 
 two bucks with exceptionally fine heads 
 frequented the wood, and our host was anx- 
 ious to secure them. My husband was 
 placed in a very likely place, and there, in 
 spite of midges and flies galore, he possessed 
 his soul in patience. Suddenly he thought 
 he heard a footstep ; the sound was repeated, 
 and, cautiously moving to discover what it 
 might portend, he saw the gun stationed 
 next him calmly patrolling up and down, 
 flicking away the midges with his white 
 handkerchief! My husband didn't get that 
 buck. 
 
 After luncheon, our party was reinforced by 
 
220 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the butler and the French cook. Both arrived 
 with guns, which they carried "at the trail/ 
 at full cock 'over the roughest ground. The 
 chef was a long, lean, lank, cadaverous man 
 looking as if he wanted one of his own 
 skewers run down him. He was dressed in 
 shiny black clothes and wore enormous 
 slippers. Comfortable enough, no doubt, on 
 the trottoir of his " beloved Paris," but 
 scarcely suitable for the hill ! So he seemed 
 to find, for he shortly retired, when we felt 
 considerably happier. Another time, the 
 best wood, the bonne bouche, was carefully 
 beaten through while we were discussing a 
 recherche champagne luncheon. Just as we 
 finished, the shouts, cries, and discordant 
 noises which denote the approach of beaters, 
 were heard, and shortly after, one of the 
 keepers came up and informed us that the 
 whole wood had been gone through and that 
 seven roe, to say nothing of a red deer had 
 been seen! Evidently "someone had blun- 
 dered." I do not myself think there is much 
 sport in roe-driving. To begin with they are 
 such pretty graceful animals, one cannot kill 
 
Shooting. 2 2 1 
 
 ■a 
 
 them without remorse. Also it requires very 
 little skill to put a charge of shot into them 
 even at a gallop. 
 
 Nor is a grey-hen a difficult bird to kill. 
 Heavy and slow — what Mr Jorrocks calls " a 
 henterpriseless brute" — it Hops along through 
 the birch trees (though, when driven, and 
 coming from some distance it acquires much 
 greater speed), looking more like a barn-door 
 fowl than a game bird ; but the Sultan of the 
 tribe is quite a different thing. Wild, wary 
 and watchful, he is ever on the qui vive. 
 When you do get a shot at him he is travel- 
 ling by express, and having, most probably, 
 been put up some distance off, he has con- 
 siderable " way " on. You see his white feathers 
 gleam in the sun, and the curl of his tail 
 against the sky. Shoot well ahead of him. 
 Ah ! great is the satisfaction of hearing the 
 dull thud as he falls, and of seeing him 
 bounce up with the force of the contact with 
 mother-earth. Truly, an old black-cock is a 
 grand bird ! His glossy blue-black plumage, 
 white under- wings and tail, and red eye make 
 such a pleasing contrast. 
 
222 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 I remember once, when grouse-driving 
 towards the eud of the day, the beaters 
 brought up a small birch wood which stood 
 near the last row of butts. There were two 
 or three ladies with us. One of them, a most 
 bewitching and lovely young woman, accom- 
 panied a gallant soldier into his butt, to mark 
 his prowess. As luck would have it, nine old 
 black-cock flew over that brave colonel's butt, 
 bub, strange to say, four went away without a 
 shot, and not one of the nine remained as 
 witnesses of his skill ! Now, let me point out, 
 had that said charming girl been shooting, 
 she would have been stationed in a butt by 
 herself, and, judging by that soldier's usual 
 performance, at least five of those old black- 
 cock would have bitten the dust that day ! 
 And " the moral of that is " — give a graceful 
 8[irl a £un ! 
 
 The hill ponies are wonderfully sagacious 
 animals. When they have been once or twice 
 over a road, they will never mistake their 
 way. Once, when staying in Sutherlandshire, 
 two of us started at 10*15 a.m. We rode 
 about four miles, before beginning to shoot, 
 
Shooting. 223 
 
 over a very bad bit of country. There were two 
 burns to ford, some curious kind of grips to 
 jump, and several boggy places to circum- 
 navigate. 
 
 We shot away from home till about 6 '30, 
 then met the ponies and started on our ride 
 home — about nine miles. We neither of us 
 knew the way, beyond having a vague idea as 
 to the direction in which the lodge lay. The 
 first part was easy enough, a narrow sheep- 
 walk guided us, but at length that failed, and 
 there was nothing for it but to trust to the 
 ponies. We could only go at a foot's-pace. 
 The September evening fast closed in, and it 
 came on to drizzle, until, for the last two 
 miles, we could scarcely see two yards before 
 us, and yet those ponies brought us home — 
 over the two fords, avoided the treacherous 
 grips and the boggy places, never putting a 
 foot wrong the whole way ! It was long- 
 past nine when the lights of the lodge hove 
 in sight. Truly that night's dinner was a 
 " thing of beauty" and bed seemed a "joy 
 for ever ! ' 
 
 Two davs later found me keen as mustard 
 
224 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 to scale the heights of Ben Hope for ptar- 
 migan. It was almost the only game bird, 
 except capercailzie, I had never shot, and I 
 was extremely anxious to seize an oppor- 
 tunity of doing so. Five guns set out. 
 We rode a considerable distance, until the 
 ground became too soft for ponies to travel. 
 Arrived at the foot of the hill I gazed in 
 dismay at its steep, stony height, and felt 
 like the child in the allegory who turns 
 back at its first difficulty ! But pluck and 
 ambition prevailed, and I struggled gamely 
 up, though, hot and breathless, I was forced 
 to pause more than once ere we got even 
 half way. We had agreed that, on no account, 
 were we to fire at anything but ptarmigan. 
 When we had ascended about 1300 feet a 
 covey of grouse got up. One of the sports- 
 men, nay, the very one who had been fore- 
 most in suggesting that ptarmigan only 
 should be our prey, turned round, and feebly 
 let fly both barrels, wounding one wretched 
 bird which disappeared into the depths below, 
 never to be seen again ! As the report 
 reverberated through the hill, the whole 
 
Shooting. 225 
 
 place above us seemed to be alive with the 
 cackling of ptarmigan, and, in a moment, 
 without any exaggeration at least twenty 
 brace were on the wing at once, making 
 their way round the shoulder, over the Green 
 Corrie to the highest part of Ben Hope. 
 I think the spectre of that grouse must 
 haunt that sportsman yet ! 
 
 Of course there were a few odd birds 
 left, and, before we gained the top, we had 
 each picked up one or two, though, through 
 another contretemps, I missed my best chance. 
 I had unwillingly, over a very steep and 
 rocky bit of ground, given up my gun to 
 the keeper. The moment after I had done 
 so, two ptarmigan got up to my left, offer- 
 ing a lovely cross shot, and, before I could 
 seize the gun, they fell, a very pretty 
 double shot, to our host on my right. When 
 we reached the summit, we found ourselves 
 enveloped in a thick fog, although down below 
 it was a brilliant hot day ; so dense was 
 it, that, notwithstanding we were walking 
 in line, some of us got separated, and it 
 must have been almost an hour before we 
 
 v 
 
226 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 joined forces again. Altogether it was a 
 hard day's work, but, having attained my 
 object, I was sublimely indifferent to every- 
 thing else. 
 
 Driving is certainly the form of shooting 
 that requires the most skill, whether it be 
 grouse or partridge, and is most fascinating 
 when you can hit your birds ! Grouse- 
 driving appears to me the easier of the two ; 
 partly because they come straight, and partly 
 because you can see them much further 
 off, also they are rather bigger, though 
 they may, perhaps, come the quicker of the 
 two. Nothing but experience will show 
 you how soon you can fire at a driven 
 grouse coming towards you. Some people 
 get on to their birds much quicker than 
 others. I have heard it said that as 
 soon as you can distinguish the plumage 
 of the bird, he is within shot. Aim a little 
 above him if he is coming towards you — 
 a long way ahead if he is crossing. 
 
 If you shoot with two guns, I assume 
 that you have practised "giving and tak- 
 ing" with a loader. Otherwise there will 
 
Shooting. 227 
 
 be a fine clashing of barrels and possibly 
 an unintentional explosion. The cap and 
 jacket for driving must be of some neutral 
 tint, any white showing is liable to turn 
 the birds. Of course you must be most 
 careful never to fire a side shot within 
 range of the next butt. A beginner is more 
 apt to do this, from being naturally a slow 
 shot at first. 
 
 The same rules hold good for partridge-driv- 
 ing, only there you usually stand behind 
 a high hedge, consequently you cannot see 
 the birds approaching. You hear "Ma-a-rk' 
 in the distance, and the next moment — 
 whish ! They are over, scattering at the 
 sight of you to right or left ; take one as 
 he comes over you, and you may get 
 another going away from you — or a side 
 shot — provided there is no gun lower down 
 whom you run the risk of peppering. 
 
 Walking up partridges in turnips affords 
 the same kind of shooting as grouse over 
 dogs ; not bad fun when they are plenti- 
 ful, but hardish work for petticoats ! If a 
 hare gets up and bounds away, the movino- 
 
228 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 turnip-tops will be your only guide to her 
 whereabouts, aim rather low, or the chances 
 are you fire over her back. A curious in- 
 cident once happened when we were part- 
 ridge shooting. Two hares were put up, 
 and running from opposite directions up the 
 same row they " collided," and with such 
 violence that one broke its neck and the 
 other was so stunned that it w T as picked 
 up by a beater ! The Irishman might w T ith 
 truth have said — "Man, they jostle one 
 anoither." And this in spite of the Ground 
 Game Act ! 
 
 You will occasionally come across snipe 
 in turnips. They are horrid little zig- 
 zagging wretches ! If you wait till their 
 first gyrations are over, they do, for a 
 second, fly straight (for them), and even a 
 20-bore can sometimes lay them low. 
 
 I once shot a quail. I mistook it for a 
 " cheeper' minus a tail, and gazed placidly 
 at its retreating form, murmuring to myself, 
 "too small," when I was electrified by 
 a yell — " Shoot, shoot ! ' Being trained to 
 habits of obedience, I promptly did as I 
 
Shooting. 229 
 
 %s 
 
 was told, and brought the "little nutterer" 
 down. A quail in a turnip field ! I should 
 as soon have expected to meet one of the 
 children of Israel. 
 
 On a winter afternoon, faute-de-mieux, 
 shooting wood-pigeons coming in to roost, 
 is a pastime not to be despised, but it is 
 very cold work. A windy evening is the best ; 
 luckily pigeons always fly in against the wind, 
 so you can get on the leeside of the planta- 
 tion and shoot them coming in, or you 
 can ensconce yourself under the shelter of 
 some fir-boug;hs near the trees in which 
 they are accustomed to roost. A pigeon 
 takes a lot of killing, he possesses so many 
 feathers ; then he has an eye like a hawk, 
 and can turn with incredible speed. If 
 there are several guns in different woods 
 you may easily get 100 in an hour or two, 
 and often many more. 
 
 Of the grandest sport of all I grieve to 
 say I can write nothing. I have never 
 had the chance of a shot at a stag. It is 
 not possible to describe a stalk by hearsay 
 only ; besides, in my remarks hitherto, I 
 
230 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 have recorded nothing which has not come 
 within my own actual experience. 
 
 I can, however, easily imagine the in- 
 tense pleasure of being well brought up to 
 within, perhaps, 100 yards of a good stag, 
 the excitement of having the rifle thrust 
 into your hands with a whispered " Tak' 
 time," the cautious raising of the weapon 
 to a rest, the anxious moment as you take 
 your sight and gently press the trigger, 
 and the supreme delight of hearing the 
 "thud 5 of the bullet as it strikes, and as 
 the smoke clears off, of seeing him stagger 
 a few paces and fall " never to rise again." 
 I forbear to draw the reverse side of the 
 picture. 
 
 Of course, in many forests, stalking is quite 
 feasible for ladies, though not within reach of 
 all. I confess I envy those fortunate indi- 
 viduals who have, more than once, compelled 
 some " an tiered monarch of the glen ' to bow 
 his lofty head and lower his colours at their 
 bidding ! 
 
 With regard to dress — I believe, for those 
 who can endure the feel, wearing all wool is 
 
Shooting. 2 3 1 
 
 a great safeguard against rheumatism, chills, 
 and all evils of that ilk. But, on this subject, 
 every woman will of course please herself. I 
 will therefore merely give an outline of my 
 own get-up. A short plain skirt of Harris 
 tweed, with just enough width to allow of 
 striding or jumping, a half tight-fitting jacket 
 to match, with turn-up collar and strap like a 
 cover-coat, pockets big enough to get the 
 hands in and out easily, a flannel shirt and 
 leather belt, or, for smarter occasions, a stiff 
 shirt and waistcoat. Knickerbockers of thin 
 dark tweed, high laced boots with nails, or 
 brown leather gaiters and shoes. If a petti- 
 coat is worn, silk is the best material for walk- 
 ins in. I have neither mackintosh nor leather 
 on my dress, I dislike the feel of both. For wet 
 weather, a waterproof cape, with straps over the 
 shoulders so that it can be thrown back, if re- 
 quired, in the act of shooting, is very convenient. 
 But there is really only one essential in a 
 shooting costume. It must be loose enough 
 to give the arms perfect freedom in every 
 direction — without this, it is impossible to 
 shoot well or quickly. 
 
232 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 One last hint. Never go on shooting when 
 you are tired. It will only cause you dis- 
 appointment, and others vexation of spirit, 
 for you will assuredly shoot under everything. 
 Bird after bird will go away wounded, time 
 after time your mentor (or tormentor) wall 
 cry "low and behind, low and behind," 
 until, in angry despair, you long to fling the 
 empty cartridge at his head. Take my advice 
 " give it up, and go home ! ' 
 
 That the above notes may not be free from 
 numerous sins of omission and commission, I 
 am well aw r are. It would be great presump- 
 tion on my part to suppose that my feeble 
 pen could do what many men have failed to 
 accomplish. But if any hints I have given 
 prove of service to beginners and encourage 
 them to persevere (even though at present, like 
 the old woman's false teeth "they misses as 
 often as they hits"), my pleasant task will 
 not have been in vain. 
 
 Mildred Boynton. 
 
A KANGAROO HUNT. 
 
A KANGAROO HUNT. 
 
 By Mrs Jenkins. 
 
 It has been said "An Englishman is never 
 happy unless he is killing something," and 
 nowadays, at any rate, his happiness seems 
 increased if members of the weaker sex share 
 this propensity with him ; and so a short 
 account of a kangaroo hunt may not be 
 inappropriate in a book about women's 
 sports. 
 
 This is an exclusively Australian pastime, 
 and has peculiar incidents of its own from the 
 start to the finish. We do not see pink coats 
 and heavy hunters, the bay of the hounds does 
 not break on our ear, there are no hedges 
 to leap, nor brooks, followed by a flounder 
 through a ploughed field ; w T e do not come 
 home in a cold drizzle at the end of a 
 delightful day, and sit near the fireside, 
 wondering whether there will be a frost 
 before morning, and whether the mares legs 
 
 2 35 
 
236 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 will last this season. No, our hunting is 
 clone under a bright sun and balmy breezes, 
 and, though we miss the prettiness and order 
 which accompany a meet in the "auld 
 countree," still, there is a rugged beauty 
 about our surroundings. The horses are 
 well-bred, though many of them not well 
 groomed ; the riders are graceful and 
 plucky, and the tout ensemble makes a fair 
 picture to the lover of horseflesh and 
 sport. 
 
 Well, friends have come together, the 
 kangaroo hounds (they are a cross between 
 the deerhound and greyhound,) are let 
 loose and gambol round the horses, letting 
 out short barks of satisfaction as the riders 
 mount. Off we go. The country is hilly 
 and thickly-wooded, logs lie in all directions, 
 but our horses, bred in the district, pick their 
 way, and go at a smart canter in and out 
 of trees, and jump the logs as they come to 
 them. 
 
 A low Hist ! from the leader of the chase 
 — he is the owner of the station — mounted 
 on a thorough-bred bay, the hounds stand a 
 
A Kangaroo Hunt. 237 
 
 second with pricked up ears, and their heads 
 high in the air, for they run by sight ; then 
 off they go, and off we go after them. The 
 kangaroos, six in number, led by a big " old 
 man," spring along at an amazing pace, 
 crash goes the brushwood, here and there 
 a hound rolls over, making a miss at a log, 
 but, in a second, he is up again, straining 
 every nerve of his graceful body to reach 
 his companions. We are nearing a wire 
 fence ; will the kangaroos be caught before 
 we come to it ? Tf not, some pretty riding 
 will be seen, and British pluck will be needed 
 to carry horse and rider over a five-feet fence, 
 topped with barbed wire. However, our 
 courage is not to be tested this time ; the 
 fleetest hound has the " old man' by the 
 throat, the rest of the pack come up, and 
 in a few moments all is over. A boy skins 
 the victim and the tail is cut off, later on 
 to make soup. 
 
 Now we have a consultation as to wdiich 
 way we shall go. It is getting near luncheon 
 time and our host wants us to camp on a 
 pretty bend of the river, so we take our 
 
2^8 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 o 
 
 course in that direction, spreading over a 
 good space, and all keeping a good look-out. 
 
 We are ascending a mountain, the way 
 is stony, and, as we go along, the scenery 
 continually varies. Hill after hill rises before 
 us, separated by deep gorges, all thickly 
 timbered and abounding in ferns and flower- 
 ing shrubs. The magpies warble and the 
 thrush whistles its piping note, interrupted 
 now and then by the shrill laugh of the jackass. 
 But some kangaroos have been sighted, and 
 even the most ardent lovers of scenery are at 
 once on the alert. 
 
 Up and down hill we go, with many a 
 slip and a scramble, horse and rider none 
 the worse. The kangaroos rush at a tre- 
 mendous speed, some of them carrying a 
 young one in their pouch ; one poor beast 
 is so hard pressed she throws the young one 
 out of her pouch ; it hops away through the 
 grass, to be caught later by friendly hands 
 and carried home as a pet. No such luck 
 for the mother, the hounds are on her and 
 she is rolled over, and on they go again in 
 pursuit of her fleeter companions. 
 
A Kangaroo Hunt. 239 
 
 A big fence has scattered them, but one, 
 more plucky than the rest, makes a frantic 
 spring. Alas ! the quick run has been too 
 much for his powers and he gets caught on 
 the merciless barbed wire. The foremost 
 rider, thinking the kangaroo would clear it, 
 is preparing to take the fence in a flying 
 leap, but the sight of the kangaroo caught 
 makes the horse baulk, and crash they all 
 come down together. With a wonderful 
 quickness the rider rolls himself away from 
 the fallen horse and is helping the animal 
 up, both none the w 7 orse, except for a few 
 scratches and a good shaking. 
 
 Everyone is now agreed that luncheon 
 has been well earned, so we ride and drive 
 (for a buggy and pair of ponies have been 
 following in our tracks) to a favourite spot. 
 And what a sight breaks on our eyes ! We 
 are in a valley, with hills towering around 
 us, the river makes a sharp bend, along the 
 banks are a mass of wattle trees in full bloom, 
 the beautiful yellow flowers lighting up the 
 dark green leaves and reddish brown bark. 
 The sky is cloudless, and a little way off, lies 
 
240 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 a herd of Devon cattle, quietly chewing the 
 cud, and mildly wondering what has brought 
 such a large party, evidently bent on play 
 instead of work, to their retreat. We see a 
 ripple on the still, deep, flowing water, and 
 a platypus swims along quickly to his nest 
 on the bank. A little lower down we hear 
 the whirr of the wild duck, which have been 
 disturbed by our coming. 
 
 A fire is soon lighted ; one is told off to 
 unpack the basket of good things ; another 
 grills some steak, someone else undertakes 
 potatoes, the oldest bushman of the lot says he 
 will regale us with "Johnnie Cakes." These 
 are made of flour and water and a little salt, 
 rolled very thin and cooked in the ashes, 
 and very good they prove to be ; and last, 
 but not least, we make the tea, boiling the 
 water in a tin pot and putting the tea into 
 
 it. 
 
 In about half an hour our various cooks 
 have all ready, and we lie about on the grass 
 and satisfy the cravings of hunger. After that 
 pipes are lighted and stories go round of 
 former exploits, how wild horses have been 
 
A Kangaroo Hunt. 241 
 
 caught and tamed, how thousands of kangaroos 
 have been driven into yards made for the 
 purpose and died of suffocation in the crowd ; 
 of adventures with wild cattle and blacks, etc., 
 etc. More serious subjects, too, are being dis- 
 cussed in twos and threes ; for there is some- 
 thing quiet and soothing in the scene around, 
 that brings to mind memories long forgotten, 
 joys and sorrows long past, and amid this 
 picture of peace and beauty, friends talk and 
 open their hearts to each other, and realise the 
 fact that nature can preach a more eloquent 
 sermon than is heard from many a pulpit. 
 But everything in this world must come to 
 an end ; the horses are caught and harnessed 
 and we all jog homeward. On the way the 
 younger spirits of the party have a gallop 
 after stray kangaroos and bring the tails back 
 with them as trophies. 
 
 One incident in the last chase may be worth 
 mentioning. The kangaroos are bounding 
 along-, with the hounds and horsemen close 
 behind them. They come to a three rail 
 fence of heavy timber ; without a miss the 
 kangaroos take it in a flying leap and appar- 
 
 Q 
 
242 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 ently without any extra exertion ; over go 
 the hounds, and the horsemen follow to a man, 
 then the excitement increases for they are 
 coming to a big lagoon ; splash goes a kan- 
 garoo into it and now we see a real fight. 
 The kangaroo stands up to his neck in the 
 water, beating about with his legs, and the 
 hounds swim around. A young one, not 
 knowing the danger, makes a snap at his 
 throat, he is instantly seized in the animals 
 arms and his back broken. Poor Daisy ! 
 your hunting days have been short and you 
 had yet to learn that discretion was the better 
 part of valour. The older hounds keep swim- 
 ming round, gradually coming nearer, and 
 several at once make snaps at different parts 
 of the kangaroo. A hand-to- hand fight takes 
 place, the kangaroo ripping and wounding 
 the hounds with his powerful hind claws ; but 
 the plucky beasts keep their hold, and amid 
 yelps of rage and pain, the splashing and 
 reddening: of the water, and the shouts of the 
 huntsmen to encourage the hounds, the victim 
 •sinks, after a vigorous struggle for his life. 
 As we drive down the mountains the sun 
 
A Kangaroo Hunt. 243 
 
 c 
 
 is setting, banks of heavy clouds are rising 
 tinged with purple, and prophesying a thun- 
 derstorm, which is made more sure by the 
 distant roar we hear. There is a stillness in 
 the air, broken by the cracking of the brush- 
 wood and the ominous cry of birds. Sud- 
 denly a streak of lightning startles us, fol- 
 lowed by a loud crash which echoes round 
 and round. We hurry home, and only arrive 
 just in time to escape a thorough soaking, 
 for the rain comes streaming down. 
 
 Beatrice M. Jenkins. 
 
CYCLING. 
 
CYCLING. 
 
 By Mrs E. Robins Pennell. 
 
 k ' There should be nothing so much a man's 
 business as his amusements." Substitute 
 icoman for man, and I, for my part, can- 
 not quarrel with Mr Stevenson's creed. 
 Our amusements, after all, are the main 
 thing in life, and of these I have found 
 cycling the most satisfactory. As a good 
 healthy tonic, it should appeal to the scru- 
 pulous woman who cannot even amuse her- 
 self without a purpose; it has elements of 
 excitement to attract the more adventurous. 
 It is a pleasure in itself, the physical exer- 
 cise being its own reward ; it is a pleasure 
 in what it leads to, since travelling is the 
 chief end of the cycle. That women do not 
 yet appreciate it at its true worth, that, as a 
 rule, they would still rather play tennis or 
 pull a boat than ride a bicycle, is their own 
 
 great loss. 
 
 247 
 
248 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 Cycling is the youngest of woman's sports. 
 It did not come in until the invention of the 
 tricycle, or three-wheeled machine; neces- 
 sarily it was out of the question for anyone 
 wearing skirts, divided or otherwise, to 
 mount the tall bicycle, or "ordinary." In 
 1878 tricycles, invented at a still earlier 
 date, were first practically advertised, and one 
 of the authors of the book on cycling in the 
 Badminton Library says, that already in that 
 year "tradition told of a lady rider, who, in 
 company with her husband, made an ex- 
 tended tour along the south coast; and in 
 quiet lanes and private gardens feminine 
 riders began to initiate themselves into the 
 pastime." But, despite the courage of their 
 pioneer, not until a few years later did they 
 desert private lanes for public roads, and 
 then it was only in small numbers. Had 
 they been more enterprising, a serious hind- 
 rance in their way was the fact that at first 
 makers refused to understand their require- 
 ments. The early tricycles made for us were 
 meant to be very ladylike, but they were 
 sadly inappropriate. It was really the tandem 
 
Cycling. 249 
 
 which did most to increase the popularity 
 of the sport among women. The sociable, 
 where the riders sit side by side, was the 
 first of the double machines, but it is an 
 instrument of torture rather than of pleasure, 
 as whoever has tried to work it knows to his 
 or her cost. Its width makes it awkward 
 and cumbersome even on good roads, and 
 when there is a head wind — and the wind 
 always blows in one's face — the treadmill is 
 child's play in comparison. The tandem, on 
 which, as the name explains, one rider sits 
 behind the other, takes up no more space 
 than a single tricycle and offers no more 
 resistance to the wind, and this means far 
 less work. Besides, for many women to have 
 a man to attend to the steering and braking, 
 in those early days was not exactly a draw- 
 back; but even with the tandem progress 
 was not rapid. I remember my first ex- 
 perience in 1884, when I practised on a 
 Coventry "Rotary" in the country round 
 Philadelphia, and felt keenly that a woman 
 on a cycle was still a novelty in the United 
 States. I came to England that same 
 
250 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 summer, but the women riders whom I met on 
 my runs through London and the Southern 
 Counties, I could count on the fingers of one 
 hand. The Humbers had then brought out 
 their tandem, and for it my husband and I 
 exchanged our " Rotary," and started off in 
 the autumn for Italy, where we rode from 
 Florence to Home. I have never made such 
 a sensation in my life, and, for my own com- 
 fort, I hope I may never make such another : 
 I ride to amuse myself, not the public. It 
 was clear that Italian women were more 
 behindhand than the English or Americans. 
 There are, nowadays, more women riders in 
 France, probably, than in any country, but 
 in the summer of 1885, on the road from 
 Calais to Switzerland, by Sterne's route, I was 
 scarce accepted as an everyday occurrence. 
 
 Single tricycles improved with every year, 
 and the introduction of the direct-steerer, or 
 well-known "Cripper' type, assured their 
 popularity. More attention being paid by 
 makers to women's machines, more women 
 were seen on the roads. Then came the great- 
 est invention of all, the " Woman's Safety." 
 
Cycling. 2 5 1 
 
 A certain benevolent Mr Sparrow, had, some 
 years before, in 1880 to be accurate, built a 
 woman's bicycle, a high one with the little 
 wheel in front, something like the American 
 "Star"; but the awkwardness of mounting 
 and dismounting made it impracticable. 
 Men had been riding the dwarf bicycle for 
 two or three years before one was introduced 
 with a frame that made it as suitable and 
 possible for women. How near this brings 
 us to the present, is proved by the fact that 
 in the Badminton book, published in 1887, 
 though there is a chapter on " Tricycling 
 for Ladies," there is nothing about bicycling 
 for them. I experimented in 1889 with a 
 tandem safetv, on which the front seat was 
 designed for women, and then the single 
 safety, with a dropped instead of a diamond 
 frame, was already in the market. But it 
 had made slight headway. In America it 
 grew more rapidly in favour. The average 
 road there is worse than here, and therefore 
 the one track — the bicycle's great advantage 
 — was much sooner appreciated. Cycling 
 for women has never become fashionable in 
 
252 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the United States, but, in proportion, a far 
 greater number of American women ride, 
 and with almost all the safety is the 
 favourite mount. In France also the sport 
 is more popular with women than in Great 
 Britain, and one might almost say that it is 
 the safety which has made it so. Biding 
 through Prussia, Saxony and Bavaria in the 
 summer of 1891, I met but two women 
 cyclists, and they both rode safeties. In 
 England, however, women, until very re- 
 cently, have seemed absurdly conservative in 
 this matter ; they clnng to the three wheels, 
 as if to do so were the one concession that 
 made their cycling proper. A few of the 
 more radical — u wild women' Mrs Lynn 
 Linton would call them — saw what folly this 
 was, and many have now become safety 
 riders; but not the majority. Only the 
 other day, in Bushey Park, I met a large 
 club on their Saturday afternoon run; half 
 the members were women, but not one was 
 on a bicycle. This, 1 know, is but a single 
 isolated instance, but it is fairly typical. 
 And yet the safety is the machine of all 
 
Cycling. 25 
 
 1 
 
 others, which, were my advice asked, I 
 would most care to recommend. And I 
 would have the wheels fitted with cushion 
 tyres — the large rubber tyre with a small 
 hole down the centre — or, better still, with 
 pneumatics, the tyres that are inflated with 
 air. Both deaden vibration. The latter 
 necessitate carrying an air-pump and a re- 
 pairing kit, for if the rubber be cut or punc- 
 tured, as frequently happens, the air, of 
 course, escapes at once, and the cut or 
 puncture must be mended and the tube 
 blown up again, which means trouble. 
 But the many improvements introduced 
 make the task of repairing easier every 
 day. My career as a bicyclist began in 
 1891, but, short as it may seem, I think it 
 has qualified me to speak with authority. 
 For my little Harriot, and Cooper's " Ladies' 
 Safety," carried me across Central Europe, 
 and as far east as the Roumanian frontier. 
 My experience agrees with that of all other 
 safety riders, men or women. The chief 
 advantage of the machine is, as I have said, 
 its one track, but this cannot be over- 
 
254 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 estimated. Roads must be, indeed, in a 
 dreadful condition if space for one wheel 
 to be driven easily over them cannot be 
 found. The bicyclist can scorch in triumph 
 along the tiniest footpath, while the tri- 
 cyclist trudges on foot, pushing her three 
 wheels through the mud or sand. More- 
 over, there is less resistance to the wind, 
 and in touring, it is for easier to dispose 
 of the small light safety than of the wider 
 machine when you put up in a little inn at 
 night, or are forced for a time to take the 
 train. Many a night in Germany, Austria, 
 and Hungary did my bicycle share my bed- 
 room with me. 
 
 The chief drawback to the safety is usually 
 found in learning to mount and steer. I 
 shall be honest, and admit that there is a 
 difficulty. The tricycle has the grace to 
 stand still while the beginner experiments, 
 but the safety is not to be trifled with. 
 Sometimes it seems as if a look were enough 
 to upset it. Of course, at first, it is well to 
 let someone hold and steady it until its 
 eccentricities are mastered, for it is entirely 
 
Cycling. 255 
 
 in the balancing that the trouble lies ; the 
 mount in itself is as simple as possible. The 
 rider stands to the left of the machine by the 
 pedals : taking hold of the handle bars she 
 slowly wheels it until the right pedal is at 
 the highest point, turns the front wheel a 
 little to the right, and puts her right foot 
 on the right pedal ; this at once starts the 
 machine and raises her into the saddle, 
 and as the left pedal comes up, it is caught 
 with her left foot. The great thing is to 
 have confidence in the machine ; she who 
 shows the least fear or distrust is completely 
 at its mercy. To dismount is as simple : 
 when the left pedal is at its lowest point, 
 the right foot is brought over the frame and 
 the rider steps to the ground. If a sudden 
 stop be necessary, she must put the brake 
 on, not too abruptly, or she may be jerked 
 out of the saddle. 
 
 The steering is the true difficulty in safety 
 riding, and yet it cannot well be taught; it 
 must come by practice, with some very 
 painful experiences in the coming. The 
 obstinacy of the safety seems at first un- 
 
256 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 conquerable. During my apprenticeship, 
 many a time have I been going in a straight 
 line with every intention of keeping on in 
 it, when, without warning, my safety has 
 turned sharply at a right angle, rushed to 
 the ditch and deposited me there. But the 
 funny part of it is, that the woman who 
 perseveres, gradually, she can scarcely ex- 
 plain how, gets the better of its self-willed 
 peculiarities until she has it under perfect 
 control. 
 
 The best plan b, in the very beginning, 
 to take a few practical lessons. There is 
 an excellent teacher to be found at 
 Singers' shop, in Holborn Viaduct, where 
 a cellar paved with asphalt is kept as a 
 school. The beginner would do well to 
 practise there until she can at least sit up 
 on the machine and balance it a little, and 
 until she begins to understand the first 
 principles of steering. At this point in 
 bicycling education I would urge her to leave 
 the schoolroom for the high road. If she 
 wait until she is too far advanced on 
 asphalt, where the machine goes almost by 
 
Cycling. 257 
 
 itself, she may have to commence all over 
 again on an ordinary road. She should 
 learn what is called ankle action from the 
 start. Once the cyclist gets into a bad style 
 of riding it is hard for her to get out of it; 
 and the more the ankle comes into play 
 the less strain is there on the muscles 
 of the legs. A good rider expends half as 
 much energy and makes far better time than 
 the woman who has not mastered the art. 
 If going up hill be exhausting, why, then it 
 is wise to walk. Going down, if the hill be 
 long, the brake must be used from the start, 
 and to know how to back-pedal is important. 
 To back-pedal is to press on the pedal when 
 it is coming up instead of when it is going 
 down. Nothing could be more dangerous 
 than to lose control of a machine on a down 
 grade. Some of the most serious accidents 
 have been the result of the rider's letting her 
 cycle run away with her in coasting. 
 
 I have enumerated the virtues of the 
 bicycle, As to its vices, I do not find that 
 it has any. An objection often is raised 
 against it because, if brought to a stand- 
 it 
 
25S Ladic s in the Field. 
 
 still by traffic or any oilier cause, the rider 
 must dismount at once. Bat I do not count 
 this a serious hardship ; I have never been in- 
 convenienced by it. Again, it is urged that 
 the luggage-carrying capacity of the safety is 
 small compared to that of the three-wheeled 
 machine. This is truer of the woman's than 
 of the man's bicycle, since we, poor things, 
 must carry our knapsack behind the saddle 
 or on the handle bars, while a most delight- 
 ful and clever little bag is made by Rendell 
 & Under vvood to fit into the diamond frame 
 of a man's safety. But, for a short trip, 
 actual necessities — that is, a complete change 
 of underclothing, a night-dress, and a not 
 too luxurious toilet case — can be carried in 
 the knapsack slung behind. For a long trip 
 it is always advisable to send a largp. bag 
 or trunk, according to the individual's wants, 
 from one \>\<* town to the next 011 the 
 route. 
 
 Luggage suggests the subject of dress, as 
 important to the woman who cycles as to the 
 woman who dances. A grey tweed that defies 
 dust and rain alike, makes the perfect gown ; if 
 
Cycling. 259 
 
 a good, strong waterproof be added, a second 
 dress will not be needed. For summer, a 
 linen or thin flannel blouse and jacket — per- 
 haps a silk blouse, for evening, in the knap- 
 sack — and, for all seasons, one of Henry 
 Heath's felt hats complete the costume. 
 For underwear, the rule is wool next the 
 skin, combinations by choice. Woollen stays 
 contribute to one's comfort, and each rider 
 can decide for herself between knicker- 
 bockers and a short petticoat. There is 
 something to be said for each. This is 
 practically the outfit supplied by the Cyclists 
 Touring; Club for its women members. As 
 for style, an ordinary tailor-made gown, 
 simple rather than elaborate, answers the 
 purpose of the bicyclist The bicyclist does 
 not get off so easily. Even with a suitable 
 dress-guard, and, no matter what the makers 
 say, the dress-guard should extend over the 
 entire upper half of the rear wheel, there 
 is ever danger of full long skirts catching 
 in the spokes and bringing the wearer in 
 humiliation and sorrow to the ground. 
 Many strange and awful costumes have been 
 
260 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 invented to obviate the clanger — one that is 
 skirt without and knickerbockers within; 
 another that is nothing more nor less than a 
 shapeless bag, when all that is needed is a 
 dress shorter and skimpier than usual, with 
 hem turned up on the outside, and absolutely 
 nothing on the inner side to catch in the 
 pedals. Now, the trouble is that for the 
 tourist, who carries but one gown, and who 
 objects to being stared at as a " Freak" 
 escaped from a side show, it is awkward, when 
 off the bicycle, to be obliged to appear in 
 large towns in a dress up to her ankles; she 
 might pass unnoticed in Great Britain, but 
 on the Continent she becomes the observed 
 of all observers. At the risk of seeminar 
 
 a 
 
 egotistic, I will explain, as I have already 
 explained elsewhere, the device by which I 
 make my one cycling gown long and short, 
 as occasion requires. There is a row of 
 safety hooks, five in all, around the waist- 
 band, and a row of eyes on the skirt about 
 a foot below. In a skirt so provided, I look 
 like every other woman when off the 
 machine. Just before I mount, I hook it up, 
 
Cycling. 261 
 
 and 1 wheel off with an easy mind, knowing 
 there is absolutely nothing to catch any- 
 where. I have read in cycling papers many 
 descriptions of other women's bicycling cos- 
 tumes, but never yet have I discovered one 
 which, for simplicity and appropriateness, 
 could compete with mine. # 
 
 On all that concerns touring, it is import- 
 ant to dwell, for it is in travelling on the 
 road that women must find chief use for their 
 cycles, and this they have had the common 
 sense to realise. Quite a number belong to 
 the Cyclists' Touring Club, and are among 
 its more active members. True, a few have 
 appeared on the path, have turned the high- 
 way into a race course, and occasionally, 
 have broken records and done the other 
 wonders to which I, personally, attach no 
 
 * Since printing this, a few Englishwomen have appeared 
 on the public roads in knickerbockers, and have made, as 
 was to be expected, great talk in the cycling press. French- 
 women gave them the example ; in France, there is scarce 
 a woman bicyclist who has not adopted knickerbockers, or 
 else a sort of gymnasium dress. Of the greater comfort and 
 safety secured, there can be no question ; the chief draw- 
 back to this costume, especially for the toiuist, is its con- 
 spicuousness. 
 
262 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 value, whether they be performed by men or 
 women. Mrs J. P. Fmith, whose husband is 
 the manufacturer of the w Invincible " cycles, 
 has with him, on his " sociable " and tandem, 
 run at several Furrey meetings and in other 
 places, and her feats are included in the list 
 of the world's records. Mrs Allen of Bir- 
 mingham, once rode two hundred miles in 
 twenty-four hours. Fraulein Johanne Jor- 
 gensen, the woman champion of Denmark, 
 is fast breaking the records of her own 
 country, and threatens to come over and 
 break those of England. The ease with 
 which Mrs Preston Davies (wife of the in- 
 ventor of the Preston Davies tyre) rode rip 
 Petersham Hill, though not exactly a record, 
 made quite a little talk among cyclists. 
 Miss Peynolds, who rode from Brighten 
 to London and back in eight hcuis, is 
 the heroine of the day. We have even 
 seen a team of women professionals im- 
 ported from America only to meet with 
 the failnie they deserved. But, fortunately, 
 these are the exceptions. I say fortun- 
 ately, because, while T am not prudish 
 
Cycling. 26^ 
 
 j 
 
 enough to be shocked by the mere ap- 
 pearance of women on the path, I do not 
 think they have the physical strength to 
 risk the fearful strain and exertion. If men 
 cannot stand it for many years, women can 
 still less. Cycling is healthy; to this fact 
 we have the testimony of such men as Dr 
 Richardson and Dr Oscar Jennings, whose 
 books on the subject should be consulted by 
 all interested ; especially Dr Jenning's 
 " Cycling and Health" since in his chapter 
 on " Cycling for Women," he has collected 
 together the opinions of leading authorities. 
 Like everything else, however, if carried to 
 excess, cycling becomes a positive evil. 
 
 Tt can be overdone on the road, but here 
 the temptations are not so great. T know 
 many women who have toured often and far, 
 and are none the worse for it. There are 
 few, however, who have taken notable ride?. 
 Mrs Harold Lewis of Philadelphia, once, with 
 her husband, travelled on a tandem from 
 Calais across France and Switzerland, and 
 over some of the highest Swiss passes. In 
 the Elwell tours from America — a species 
 
264 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 of personally-conducted tours on wheels — 
 women have more than once been in the 
 party. But of other long journeys so sel- 
 dom have I heard, that sometimes I wonder 
 if, without meaning to, I have broken the 
 record as touring wheel- worn an. But the 
 truth is, that, while every racing event is 
 chronicled far and wide in the press, the 
 tourist accomplishes her feats without ad- 
 vertisement, solely for the pleasure of tra- 
 velling by cycle. 
 
 And what stronger inducement could she 
 have? Hers is all the joy of motion, not to 
 be under-estimated, and of long days in the 
 open air; all the joy of adventure and change. 
 Hers is the delightful sense of independence 
 and power, the charm of seeing the country 
 in the only way in which it can be seen ; 
 instead of being carried at lightening speed 
 from one town to another where the 
 traveller is expected and prepared for, the 
 cyclist's is a journey of discovery through 
 little forgotten villages and by lonely farm- 
 houses where the sight-seer is unknown. 
 And, above all, cycling day after day and all 
 
Cycling. 265 
 
 day long will speedily reduce, or elevate, her 
 to that perfect state of physical well-being, 
 to that healthy animal condition, which in 
 itself is one of the greatest pleasures in 
 life. 
 
 Women have used cycles for other pur- 
 poses. Doctors ride them to visit their 
 patients, the less serious go shopping on 
 them. Clubs have been formed here, and 
 more successfully in America. There is at 
 least one journalist, Miss Lilias Campbell 
 Davidson, who is on the staff of the 
 Bicycling Neics and the Cyclists' Touring 
 Club Gazette. Put, when all is said, the 
 true function of the cycle is to contribute 
 to the amusement and not the duties of life, 
 and it is in touring that this end is best 
 
 fulfilled. 
 
 Elizbaeth Robins Pennell. 
 
PUNTING. 
 
PUNTING. 
 
 By Miss Sybil Salamax. 
 
 That punting is an art, and a very graceful 
 
 one, was borne in upon me late one hot, 
 
 lazy, summer afternoon, while idly musing 
 
 under the verandah of a houseboat on the 
 
 upper Thames, and from that day to this, 
 
 one of my most ardent desires has been to 
 
 become an expert punter. It was in the 
 
 prettiest reach on the river, just above the 
 
 lock, that the houseboat lay. The sun was 
 
 setting behind the trees, and tinting with a 
 
 rosy glow the mist that was creeping up 
 
 from the bank. Perfect peace was over the 
 
 scene, and did not Nature abhor silence as 
 
 much as she does a vacuum, I might almost 
 
 say that silence rested upon the river. But 
 
 birds sang, now and then a fish would jump, 
 
 curl its silver body in the air, and return to 
 
 its watery home with a splash, the mooring 
 
 chains of the houseboat were grating as the 
 
 269 
 
270 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 river rippled by, and in the distance was 
 the hissing sound of the weir. Suddenly 
 there came a noisy intrusion, the peaceful- 
 ness was disturbed, the air was full of dis- 
 cordant voices and the irregular splashes of 
 ill-managed oars, for the lock-gates had opened 
 and let loose a crowd of noisy, scrambling, 
 Saturday half-holiday folk. Happily, they 
 soon passed by, and the sound of their 
 incongruous chatter and laughter, and inter- 
 mittent splashing followed them out of my 
 ken, and then all was quiet and peaceful 
 again, and I was left gazing dreamily at the 
 disturbed fishes darting about in the shallow 
 water where the houseboat lay. 
 
 Presently a gentle rippling sound caused 
 me to look up. A girl was punting past, 
 there was no splashing, no scramble, appar- 
 ently no effort. The girl never moved from 
 where she stood, only her body swayed back- 
 wards and forwards on her pole, easily and 
 evenly, and the long straight craft glided by, 
 answering to every touch. I hardly realised 
 then that this slim, graceful girl was doing 
 all the work herself, it looked so easy and 
 
Punting. 2 7 1 
 
 simple. The water bubbled aloud under the 
 bow of the punt, and the girl's shadow floated 
 on the water, the red suulight lay like a 
 pathway before her, and the ripples seemed 
 to part to make way for her as she brought 
 her punt steadily along. She made a lovely 
 picture, and I watched her as she went down 
 the river, in the rising mist and the sunlight, 
 marvelling at the straight line she kept, 
 watching the monotonous motion of the pole 
 rising and falling, and listening almost un- 
 consciously for the hollow ring of the shoe 
 striking on the hard ground, till a sudden 
 bend in the river took her out of sight, 
 though, for some time, I still saw the top of 
 her pole over the bushes rhythmically rising 
 high in the air and disappearing from view. 
 From that moment I decided to be a punter 
 — this girl was once only a beginner — surely, 
 I thought, there was hope for me. 
 
 I need not dwell on all my personal ex- 
 periences — there is a great sameness about 
 the first efforts of all punters, they all go 
 round in circles. But there are certain hints 
 which beginners will do well to follow. 
 
272 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 First of all they must not be discouraged 
 by the inevitable clumsiness of their first 
 endeavours, the ease and grace of punting 
 comes only after much experience. 
 
 To the girl who wishes seriously to become 
 a punter, it is far better, having once under- 
 stood the principle by which a punt is pro- 
 pelled and steered, to go out and struggle 
 alone. If someone is always by to take the 
 pole from her, should any difficulty arise, she 
 will not gain that independence which is so 
 absolutely essential to every punter. 
 
 Just a word as to dress. 
 
 A good punter can dress as she pleases, 
 but all beginners get wet ; no one can teach 
 them how to avoid this until they have 
 acquired a certain style. Therefore I should 
 recommend a serge skirt, not too long, that 
 will stand any amount of water, a loose blouse, 
 with sleeves which can unbutton and roll up ; 
 shoes with low heels, and, for preference, india- 
 rubber soles, as they prevent slipping if the 
 punt be at all wet. 
 
 As in rowing and sculling the work in punt- 
 ing is distributed all over the body, and does 
 
Punting. 273 
 
 not only exercise the arm, as so many be- 
 ginners imagine. In punting, all the weight 
 of the body should be thrown back on the 
 pole with the push, which, by the way, should 
 never be given until the shoe has gripped 
 the ground. This brings into play all the 
 muscles of the back, shoulders, and arms, also 
 the hips. This upright position is attained 
 by swinging the body back on the pole when 
 the shoe has gripped the ground, while one 
 foot is firmly planted a little in advance, and 
 the other leg rests behind with bended knee, 
 thus enabling the arms to be kept nearly 
 straight and the hands well over the water. 
 
 Punting in this stationary position is 
 technically called "pricking." Of the dif- 
 ferent styles of punting I shall speak more 
 fully later on. 
 
 The greatest difficulty for the beginner is 
 to keep the punt straight, but to achieve this 
 it is only necessary to be always watching the 
 bow of the punt, and to remember that which- 
 ever way the top of the pole points, the bow 
 will run in the opposite direction. In steering 
 there are, practically speaking, two strokes — 
 
 s 
 
274 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 in one the pole is thrown in away from the 
 side of the punt, which brings the bow in 
 towards the bank, and in the other the pole 
 is dropped in under the bottom of the punt, 
 which turns the bow away from the bank. 
 A punter, by the way, always punts from the 
 side nearest the bank. But the steering should 
 not be perceptible, and must never be allowed 
 to detract from the strength of the stroke. 
 It is effected, as I have said, by the angle 
 at which the pole is thrown in, and also by 
 the position of the shoe on the ground at the 
 finish of the stroke. The direction of a punt 
 with " way " on is altered by the slightest 
 touch. 
 
 The very bad habit of steering with the 
 pole behind off the ground, using the pole as 
 a rudder, is never practised by good punters. 
 In very deep water, or in a strong stream, it 
 must either break or strain the pole, and it 
 is not nearly so quick or effectual a way of 
 steering as the proper method I have de- 
 scribed. 
 
 There are two ways of punting, known 
 respectively as "pricking" and "running." 
 
Printing. 275 
 
 Roughly speaking "running" is more general 
 on the upper river, that is, above Windsor, 
 and " pricking" on the shallower and less 
 muddy waters of Staines and Sunbury ; 
 though "pricking* is much more popular in 
 all parts of the river than it was a year or so 
 ago — very few people " run ' punts below 
 Maidenhead now. 
 
 For "lunning;" all the weight should be in 
 the stern. The punter must not go too far 
 forward up the bow or she will stop the " way ' 
 of the punt. A steady pressure should be 
 kept up while walking down the punt once 
 the pole is thrown into the water, and a 
 strong push given at the finish in the stern. 
 If the pressure is too great at the ccmmence- 
 ment of the stroke, by the time the stern is 
 reached the bow will have run out into the 
 stream, so that, at the finish of the stroke, too 
 much force has to be used to bring the punt 
 in again. This detracts from the speed and 
 causes a zig-zag course. As in " pricking," 
 there should not be 'too much steering. It 
 is impossible, in " running ' ; a punt, to steer 
 entirely without the effort being perceptible. 
 
276 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 Against a strong stream and wind, and with a 
 heavy load it is often far easier to "run." 
 For "pricking," the punter assumes a station- 
 ary position in the stern, about a third of 
 the way up the punt and facing the bow. while 
 all the weight to be carried is put in front of 
 
 O J- 
 
 the punter. The pole must never be reversed 
 to bring the punt in or out, but kept the same 
 side, that is, in the shallow water nearest the 
 bank. The pole should be thrown in as near the 
 side of the punt as possible without scraping it 
 each time. This enables the punter to keep 
 an upright position, and exert more force than 
 if the pole were held far away from the punt. 
 
 A pole is taken out hand over hand, and 
 should be recovered in as few movements as 
 possible. In racing especially a quick re- 
 covery is a very great advantage. It should 
 be taken out in two movements in shallow 
 water, so that a fast punter would be ready to 
 throw in her pole for the next push before a 
 punter with a slow recovery had taken her 
 pole out of the water. Of course, in very deep 
 water, two movements will be found impos- 
 sible. 
 
Punting. 277 
 
 In an ordinary way, and going up stream, 
 the pole is thrown about opposite to with the 
 body, but going down, in a very strong stream 
 the pole should be thrown in some way in 
 advance of the body, otherwise the punter 
 loses her grip on the ground in consequence 
 of the stream carrying the punt so rapidly on 
 that the pole floats uselessly out in the 
 stream, and no time is given for the push. 
 A punt can be stopped dead by reversing the 
 pole — not to the opposite side of the punt, 
 but by throwing it in in the opposite direc- 
 tion to that in which the punter is pushing. 
 A punt is sometimes considered somewhat 
 awkward to turn, but the distance of her own 
 length is nearly enough in reality if she is 
 turned properly ! When the " way ' on her 
 is stopped the pole should be thrown in the 
 other side, across the deck — the shoe pointing 
 a long way off from the punt, so that the 
 pole slants right across, the punter facing the 
 stern. This stroke repeated once or twice 
 will turn a punt almost in her own water. 
 
 When crossing strong streams, the bow 
 must be kept well up against the stream, or 
 
278 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 the current will carry the punt right round. 
 In a strong wind the same precaution is 
 necessary. It is sometimes easier in much 
 wind to push the punt backwards — the stern 
 foremost, the punter standing in the bow. 
 A punb is nob so much iadaenced by the wind 
 with all the weight in front, and is therefore 
 easier to keep sbraighb. If the bow is oat of 
 the water, it is blown from one side to the 
 other, and it is often very ditrbulb to steer. 
 la the wash of a stexmer punters should 
 keep away from the bank, or the punt may 
 be swept on to it, when it will probably ship 
 water. 
 
 In going over new ground, it is well to be 
 prepared for mud or loose shingle. If there 
 has been any dredging, the ground is always 
 loose, and it is easy to lose one's balance if 
 quite unprepared for the ground crumbling 
 away under a hard push. The same thing 
 takes place with an unexpected deep hole, 
 where the pole is flung in and cannot reach 
 the bottom. 
 
 If a punter be always prepared for these 
 things, there is no danger, but an unthinking 
 
Punting, 279 
 
 beginner is apt to throw in her pole fiercely, 
 and on finding it stuck fast in the mud, she 
 will probably fall in herself if she clings to it 
 valiantly bub foolishly. Never cling to a pole 
 therefore — rather let it go. For this reason, 
 or in case of accidentally breaking a pole, 
 punters should always carry an extra one in 
 the punt. 
 
 Some people have straps on the outside of 
 their punts for extra poles, but these are apt 
 to be a nuisance in locks, and they spoil the 
 trim and neat appearance of a punt. Beware 
 of a wooden bottom to a lock, for the shoe of 
 the pole may stick fast in the wood and the 
 bow of the punt swing round across the lock- 
 gates. 
 
 A punt has one great disadvantage. 
 
 In a look full of boats, perhaps half the 
 number of people do not know how to manage 
 their own boats, and have not the least idea 
 how to get out of the lock. Therefore they 
 are apt to dig their boat-hooks into the 
 nearest punt, if they can, and expect to be 
 towed out. So, while looking out for a 
 wooden bottom to the lock, beware also of 
 
280 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 those "boat-hooks fiends" who do not think 
 it nesessary to learn how to manage their 
 boats so long as they can splash about with a 
 pair of sculls, and trust to a punter guiding 
 them safely out of locks. 
 
 Keep the pole between the punt and the 
 side of the lock to avoid the greasy sides. 
 
 Double punting, that is two persons punt- 
 ing together simultaneously, is very effective 
 on the river. To do this the punter may 
 stand in various ways, but I consider the best 
 is for both punters to stand in the stern, 
 almost back to back, one a little in advance of 
 the other, to set the stroke. This necessitates 
 hardly any steering, for, with a pole on each 
 side, the punt will keep itself straight if both 
 strokes are of equal strength. In turning, 
 the inside one should hold the punt steady, 
 while the other pushes — the punt will then 
 turn as on a pivot. 
 
 Some people stand at opposite ends of the 
 punt, with both poles one side, but I can- 
 not recommend this method, because too 
 much weight is then thrown on to one side, 
 and a punt will not travel well unless properly 
 
Punting. 281 
 
 balanced. In all double punting little or no 
 steering should be required if both work well 
 together. But wherever the punters may 
 stand, the most important point is to keep 
 time — perfect time. This is a sine qua non 
 in all good double punting. Nothing looks so 
 bad as to see two persons double punting 
 when quite regardless as to time. 
 
 Both poles must be recovered together and 
 in the same number of movements, otherwise 
 it looks a scramble, and the poles appear to 
 be of different lengths. 
 
 The principle of steering is, of course, the 
 same in double punting as in "pricking" and 
 " running," only that here the work is divided, 
 the business of one being to bring the bow in, 
 the other to take it out. Punters must never 
 interfere with each other's stroke, and never 
 seem to be waiting. If the last stroke has 
 been too strong, so that it has sent the punt 
 out of the ordinary course, or not strong 
 enough, so that she has run in, the punter 
 should not wait till her fellow punter's stroke 
 has corrected the fault, but should throw in 
 her pole in time with the other, even if no 
 
2$ 2 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 pressure be required at all, just to keep the 
 time. The strongest punter should be at the 
 back, if there be any difference. 
 
 Punts vary from the heavy fishing ones 
 to the narrow and unsteady racing craft. 
 But a useful punt for ordinary work is about 
 3 feet wide and 26 feet long;. The seat is 
 arranged about 3 to 4 feet from the deck, allow- 
 ing just room for the punters to stand. This 
 is, of course, intended for " pricking " from the 
 stern. A semi-racer, to hold one person be- 
 sides the punter, is about 22 inches or 2 feet 
 wide, about 27 feet long. A racing punt 
 about 16 or 17 inches wide and from 30 to 32 
 feet lono*. 
 
 Really the most important item to a punter 
 is the pole, though many inexperienced people 
 give all their attention to their punts, while 
 they think almost any pole will do, in which 
 they are very much mistaken. The pole is, 
 if anything, more important than the punt 
 itself. For my own part, I prefer to any 
 other a made pole about 15 or 16 feet long. 
 For hard work and Ions; distances this is 
 certainly the best. Great attention must be 
 
Punting. 283 
 
 paid to the .shoe. If the prongs be too close 
 they will pick up stones continually, and 
 probably split the pole or break. The best 
 shoe for ordinary work is shaped something 
 like a horse-shoe, but the prongs must not 
 incline inwards on account of stones. The 
 prettiest and most graceful shoe is one with 
 rather long prongs, not too close, made of 
 nickle-plated iron. The shoe should always 
 be heavy enough for the pole. Poles are 
 made of various woods, and steel tubing has 
 been tried, but these, however, have not been 
 found very practical. Larch poles are apt to 
 splinter, red larch are better, but they are 
 not very strong, and they are very difficult to 
 obtain, while they are seldom quite straight. 
 JJamboo poles are very well for a calm river, 
 with little or no stream, but they are not 
 much use for hard work, they are so light 
 that they are always inclined to be top-heavy. 
 All bamboos should have very heavy shoes, 
 and even then they must be heavily weighted 
 in addition, it is almost impossible to got 
 them heavy enough at the bottom. A pole 
 should sink at once, and not require pushing 
 
284 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 down. It will be found that a bamboo Las 
 to be held down, or it will rise of its own 
 account and float out, giving no time for 
 the push. They are considered unbusiness- 
 like by serious punters. But sometimes at 
 regattas they are found useful, The Henley 
 course, for instance, is very deep all the way 
 along the meadow side, even quite near the 
 bank, therefore a long pole is necessary, and 
 these are apt to be very tiring and heavy 
 when punting all day. A bamboo must never 
 be left out in a hot sun when it is wet, or it 
 will crack between the joints and when put 
 back into the water will fill, so that the water 
 runs out over one's hands and arms. But of 
 whatever kind the pole may be it must be 
 properly balanced, and not top-heavy. The 
 lightest punt will not make up for a badly- 
 balanced pole. In racing this should be 
 remembered. It is customary to " prick' 
 from the middle of the punt in racing. A 
 stroke called the overhand push is much used 
 for speed. After the first push is given, and 
 the pole is bent with the chest, without 
 moving the back foot, only the heel of the 
 
Punting, 285 
 
 front one, and, turning the body, a second 
 push is given. The advantage of this is that 
 the punter is able to push twice without 
 taking the pole out of the water, and a longer 
 swing of the body is accordingly obtained. 
 When women race, they do so in ordinary 
 punts, not in racing punts. There are not 
 many punting races open exclusively to 
 ladies ; in fact, as far as I can ascertain, they 
 are only included in the programmes of the 
 regattas at Goring and Streatly, at Wargrave 
 and at Cookham, and the Thames Ditton and 
 Hampton Court Aquatic Sports. At the 
 Maidenhead and Taplow Town Eegatta there 
 is a Lady's and Gentleman's Double Punting 
 Race, and there is some talk of a Ladies' 
 Punting Championship competition being in- 
 augurated at Maidenhead. 
 
 In spite of the paucity of punting races 
 for ladies, however, there are several ladies 
 in various parts of the Thames whose style 
 and speed have won for them something 
 more than local renown. For instance, at 
 Staines, there are Mrs Hamilton, Miss Kilby 
 and Mrs George Hunter ; at Maidenhead, 
 
286 Ladies in the Field. 
 
 Miss Ethel Lumley and Miss Annie Benning- 
 field ; at Bray, Miss Maud Lumley ; at Hamp- 
 ton, Miss D. Hewitt, who in '91 won the 
 Ladies' Punting Competition at the Hampton 
 Court and Thames Ditton Aquatic Sports. 
 In addition to these, there is Mrs Sharratt of 
 Surly Hall Hotel, better known, perhaps, as 
 Miss Ada Morris, the daughter of the lock- 
 keeper at Bray, who has the reputation of 
 being one of the best punters, if not the best, 
 on the Thames. Some people punt Canadian 
 canoes, but this, though pretty w r hen well done, 
 does not come under the heading of serious 
 punting. 
 
 The practice of paddling punts is often 
 indulged in on crow T ded courses, such as Henley 
 in the regatta week, but this T need hardly 
 say is never done by good punters. Even 
 there it is far better to use a long pole. 
 
 In conclusion, I think I may say that there 
 is no prettier sight on the w^tole river than a 
 girl, neatly dressed, punting well and grace- 
 fully ; but, like riding, it is an exercise which 
 must be done well. A hot-looking girl 
 struggling with her pole is a spectacle that 
 
Punting. 287 
 
 must excite anything but admiration from 
 cither the river or the bank. Good style and 
 ease, so important in punting, come only after 
 much practice. 
 
 Sybil Salaman. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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