[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]