[Ill.u.s.tration: HINTS TO BEGINNERS
In mounting your horse, always stand facing his tail.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The patent pneumatic tennis-ball hunting costume. Falling a pleasure.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Second Whip._ "G-aw-ne away!"
_Middle-aged Diana._ "Go on away, indeed! Impertinence! I"ll go just when I"m ready!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: A CASE OF REAL DISTRESS
_Fox-hunter._ "Here"s a bore, Jack! The ground is half a foot thick with snow, and it"s freezing like mad!"]
THE HUNTSMAN"S POINT OF VIEW.
One of the best runs of the season.
Good scent all the way.
Sir Heavistone Stogdon unfortunately fell at a stiff bank and broke his collar-bone.
At the last moment, I regret to say, the fox got away.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A FOX HUNT
(_After a tapestry_)
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUGGLES WITH THE DEVON AND SOMERSET
He encounters a "coomb," and wonders if it is soft at the bottom.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: WITH THE DEVON AND SOMERSET
_Sportsman_ (_from the bog_). "Confound you, didn"t you say there was a sound bottom here?"
_Shepherd._ "Zo there be, maister; but thou "aven"t got down to un yet!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUGGLES WITH THE DEVON AND SOMERSET
How he found a "Warrantable Deer."]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUGGLES WITH THE DEVON AND SOMERSET
_In_ Devonshire.]
FOOLS AND THEIR MONEY--
_Jones_ (_who has been having a fair bucketing for the last half-hour, as he pa.s.ses friend, in his mad career_). "I"d give a fiver to get off this brute!"
_Friend_ (_brutal_). "Don"t chuck your money away, old chap! You"ll be off for less than that!"
WITH THE QUEEN"S
_Leading Sportsman._ "Hold ha--rd! Here"s some more of that confounded barbed wire! Dashed if I don"t think this country is mainly inhabited by retired fishing-tackle makers!"
[_Makes for nearest gate, followed by sympathetic field._
HIS OPINION
_Jenkinson_ (_to M.F.H., who dislikes being bothered_). "What do you think of this horse?" (_No answer._) "Bred him myself, you know!"
_M.F.H._ (_looking at horse out of corner of his eye_). "Umph! I thought you couldn"t have been such a silly idiot as to have _bought_ him!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE VOICE OF SPRING
_Bibulous Binks._ "Gad, it"s freezing again!"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: A BLANK--BLANK--DAY]