Among those who hunt there are two classes of hunting people who always
like it, and these people are hunting parsons and hunting ladies. That
it should be so is natural enough. In the life and habits of parsons
and ladies there is much that is antagonistic to hunting, and they who
suppress this antagonism do so because they are Nimrods at heart.
But the riding of these horsemen under difficulties, horsemen and
horsewomen, leaves a strong impression on the casual observer of
hunting; for to such an one it seems that the hardest riding is
forthcoming exactly where no hard riding should be expected. On the
present occasion I will, if you please, confine myself to the lady who
rides to hounds, and will begin with an assertion, which will not
be contradicted, that the number of such ladies is very much on the
increase.
Women who ride, as a rule, ride better than men. They, the women, have
always been instructed; whereas men have usually come to ride without
any instruction. They are put upon ponies when they are all boys, and
put themselves upon their fathers' horses as they become hobbledehoys:
and thus they obtain the power of sticking on to the animal while
he gallops and jumps, and even while he kicks and shies; and, so
progressing, they achieve an amount of horsemanship which answers
the purposes of life. But they do not acquire the art of riding with
exactness, as women do, and rarely have such hands as a woman has on
a horse's mouth. The consequence of this is that women fall less often
than men, and the field is not often thrown into the horror which would
arise were a lady known to be in a ditch with a horse lying on her.
I own that I like to see three or four ladies out in a field, and I like
it the better if I am happy enough to count one or more of them among
my own acquaintances. Their presence tends to take off from hunting that
character of horseyness, of both fast horseyness and slow horseyness,
which has become, not unnaturally, attached to it, and to bring it
within the category of gentle sports. There used to prevail an idea that
the hunting man was of necessity loud and rough, given to strong drinks,
ill adapted for the poetries of life, and perhaps a little prone to make
money out of his softer friend. It may now be said that this idea is
going out of vogue, and that hunting men are supposed to have that same
feeling with regard to their horses, the same and no more, which ladies
have for their carriage or soldiers for their swords. Horses are valued
simply for the services that they can render, and are only valued highly
when they are known to be good servants. That a man may hunt without
drinking or swearing, and may possess a nag or two without any
propensity to sell it or them for double their value, is now beginning
to be understood. The oftener that women are to be seen "out," the more
will such improved feelings prevail as to hunting, and the pleasanter
will be the field to men who are not horsey, but who may nevertheless be
good horsemen.
There are two classes of women who ride to hounds, or, rather, among
many possible classifications, there are two to which I will now call
attention. There is the lady who rides, and demands assistance; and
there is the lady who rides, and demands none. Each always, I may
say always, receives all the assistance that she may require; but the
difference between the two, to the men who ride with them, is very
great. It will, of course, be understood that, as to both these samples
of female Nimrods, I speak of ladies who really ride, not of those who
grace the coverts with, and disappear under the auspices of, their papas
or their grooms when the work begins.
The lady who rides and demands assistance in truth becomes a nuisance
before the run is over, let her beauty be ever so transcendent, her
horsemanship ever-so-perfect, and her battery of general feminine
artillery ever so powerful. She is like the American woman, who is
always wanting your place in a railway carriage, and demanding it, too,
without the slightest idea of paying you for it with thanks; whose study
it is to treat you as though she ignored your existence while she is
appropriating your services. The hunting lady who demands assistance is
very particular about her gates, requiring that aid shall be given to
her with instant speed, but that the man who gives it shall never
allow himself to be hurried as he renders it. And she soon becomes
reproachful, oh, so soon! It is marvellous to watch the manner in which
a hunting lady will become exacting, troublesome, and at last imperious,
deceived and spoilt by the attention which she receives. She teaches
herself to think at last that a man is a brute who does not ride as
though he were riding as her servant, and that it becomes her to assume
indignation if every motion around her is not made with some reference
to her safety, to her comfort, or to her success. I have seen women look
as Furies look, and heard them speak as Furies are supposed to speak,
because men before them could not bury themselves and their horses out
of their way at a moment's notice, or because some pulling animal would
still assert himself while they were there, and not sink into submission
and dog-like obedience for their behoof.
I have now before my eyes one who was pretty, brave, and a good
horse-woman; but how men did hate her! When you were in a line with her
there was no shaking her off. Indeed, you were like enough to be shaken
off yourself, and to be rid of her after that fashion. But while you
were with her you never escaped her at a single fence, and always felt
that you were held to be trespassing against her in some manner. I shall
never forget her voice, "Pray, take care of that gate." And yet it was
a pretty voice, and elsewhere she was not given to domineering more than
is common to pretty women in general; but she had been taught badly from
the beginning, and she was a pest. It was the same at every gap. "Might
I ask you not to come too near me?" And yet it was impossible to escape
her. Men could not ride wide of her, for she would not ride wide of
them. She had always some male escort with her, who did not ride as she
rode, and consequently, as she chose to have the advantage of an escort,
of various escorts, she was always in the company of some who did not
feel as much joy in the presence of a pretty young woman as men should
do under all circumstances. "Might I ask you not to come too near me?"
If she could only have heard the remarks to which this constant little
request of hers gave rise. She is now the mother of children, and her
hunting days are gone, and probably she never makes that little request.
Doubtless that look, made up partly of offence and partly of female
dignity, no longer clouds her brow. But I fancy that they who knew her
of old in the hunting field never approach her now without fancying that
they hear those reproachful words, and see that powerful look of injured
feminine weakness.
But there is the hunting lady who rides hard and never asks for
assistance. Perhaps I may be allowed to explain to embryo Dianas, to the
growing huntresses of the present age, that she who rides and makes
no demand receives attention as close as is ever given to her more
imperious sister. And how welcome she is! What a grace she lends to
the day's sport! How pleasant it is to see her in her pride of place,
achieving her mastery over the difficulties in her way by her own wit,
as all men, and all women also, must really do who intend to ride to
hounds; and doing it all without any sign that the difficulties are too
great for her!
The lady who rides like this is in truth seldom in the way. I have heard
men declare that they would never wish to see a side-saddle in the field
because women are troublesome, and because they must be treated with
attention let the press of the moment be ever so instant. From this I
dissent altogether. The small amount of courtesy that is needed is more
than atoned for by the grace of her presence, and in fact produces no
more impediment in the hunting-field than in other scenes of life.
But in the hunting-field, as in other scenes, let assistance never be
demanded by a woman. If the lady finds that she cannot keep a place in
the first flight without such demands on the patience of those around
her, let her acknowledge to herself that the attempt is not in her line,
and that it should be abandoned. If it be the ambition of a hunting lady
to ride straight, and women have very much of this ambition, let her use
her eyes but never her voice; and let her ever have a smile for those
who help her in her little difficulties. Let her never ask any one "to
take care of that gate," or look as though she expected the profane
crowd to keep aloof from her. So shall she win the hearts of those
around her, and go safely through brake and brier, over ditch and dyke,
and meet with a score of knights around her who will be willing and able
to give her eager aid should the chance of any moment require it.
There are two accusations which the more demure portion of the world
is apt to advance against hunting ladies, or, as I should better say,
against hunting as an amusement for ladies. It leads to flirting, they
say, to flirting of a sort which mothers would not approve; and it leads
to fast habits, to ways and thoughts which are of the horse horsey, and
of the stable, strongly tinged with the rack and manger. The first of
these accusations is, I think, simply made in ignorance. As girls are
brought up among us now-a-days, they may all flirt, if they have a mind
to do so; and opportunities for flirting are much better and much more
commodious in the ball-room, in the drawing-room, or in the park, than
they are in the hunting-field. Nor is the work in hand of a nature to
create flirting tendencies, as, it must be admitted, is the nature of
the work in hand when the floors are waxed and the fiddles are going.
And this error has sprung from, or forms part of, another, which is
wonderfully common among non-hunting folk. It is very widely thought
by many, who do not, as a rule, put themselves in opposition to the
amusements of the world, that hunting in itself is a wicked thing; that
hunting men are fast, given to unclean living and bad ways of life; that
they usually go to bed drunk, and that they go about the world roaring
hunting cries, and disturbing the peace of the innocent generally.
With such men, who could wish that wife, sister, or daughter should
associate? But I venture to say that this opinion, which I believe to be
common, is erroneous, and that men who hunt are not more iniquitous
than men who go out fishing, or play dominoes, or dig in their gardens.
Maxima debetur pueris reverentia, and still more to damsels; but if boys
and girls will never go where they will hear more to injure them than
they will usually do amidst the ordinary conversation of a hunting
field, the maxima reverentia will have been attained.
As to that other charge, let it be at once admitted that the young lady
who has become of the horse horsey has made a fearful, almost a fatal
mistake. And so also has the young man who falls into the same error. I
hardly know to which such phase of character may be most injurious. It
is a pernicious vice, that of succumbing to the beast that carries you,
and making yourself, as it were, his servant, instead of keeping him
ever as yours. I will not deny that I have known a lady to fall into
this vice from hunting; but so also have I known ladies to marry their
music-masters and to fall in love with their footmen. But not on that
account are we to have no music-masters and no footmen.
Let the hunting lady, however, avoid any touch of this blemish,
remembering that no man ever likes a woman to know as much about a horse
as he thinks he knows himself.