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
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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 0 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 wxeak
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 inmJhe 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 wTancler
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 awray 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 }7ou 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 wrind. 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, w7hile she wTalks 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 wTeight. A nice light wTeight 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 wTas a little twelve-
hand Welsh mare, and there was nothing that
pony wouldn't jump or scramble over somehow.
What wTas 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
wTere 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 bywrord
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 follow7 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 wrould
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 wTill 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 wTith 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. Howr
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 U1 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 wTill 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
wrould 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 wTe
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 wTe 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 blew7 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 wTe were just as sopped as ever ten
minutes after we had started again. How-
ever, 'tis a poor heart that never rejoices,
and wTe 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 wThen 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 wras 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, wTill 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 wTalk 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 awray 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 wTounded, 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 wTe 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
0
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 w7ith 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. Awrare 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 w7ith 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 wTas picked
up by a beater ! The Irishman might wTith
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
"thud5 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 awrare. 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 ; wTe 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
235
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 w7orse, 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 wrhen well done,
does not come under the heading of serious
punting.
The practice of paddling punts is often
indulged in on crowTded 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.
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