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IN THE HUNTING FIELD.
Varieties of the Girl Who Rides
to Hounds.
Tlu? Fashionable Fox Hunt Evotven Fe*
cullar Typen?The tllrl TV ho Fol?
lows by the Road and the One
tv ho Taken Every Thlac.
ICOPYRIOHT. 1890.1
{Special Correspondence.]
Tlio girl who rides to hounds is a
peculiarly British product of evolution.
tShe exists elsowhere, but not in her
perfection. On English soil tho species
has developed several varieties.
First, and least differentiated from
the girl in general?sho who drives a
?pony trap or a dog cart instead of trust?
ing herself on the back of any animal?
llrst comes the girl who .seldom at?
tempts to follow except by tho road,
unless, indeed, she has in tow a cavalier
(Sufficiently devoted to alight at the
.gates and let down the. bars. The girl
who fears to jumn a stilo is often very
pret ty in the ball-room, but your genu?
ine fox-hunting dame looks down on
hor as a little out of place at the covert ,
side.
She rides, very probably, a quiet pony ?
with a big lieiyl and thick legs. Her 1
liabit is long enough to conto well down j
?below her hoots and she wears a gauze
-vail to protect her complexion. When
sho rides up before tho "start" thero is a
great, lifting of bats among the gentle
'inen.To the unconcealed disgust of others
of "nor sox, she holds a littlo court while
rthe hounds are scouting in tho thicket
?where Reynard lurks In his hole. When
(the pack comes tearing out from the
?wood, and over hedges and ditches
'across plowed fields afteronopoor mean :
[littlo brute go men and women in one ,
[crazed cavalcade, then she is left wlth
|OUt adieUX, to take to the w inding lanes
[with the landaus ami the villages carts,
(to go homo if the pursuit is too long or
[labyrinthine, or to unpack a dainty lunch
with which Rickotts, her groom, has j
'followed, if there happens to be a lull
iwhen the canine slayers nrobaffiod near
any point where she may bo joined by
throe or four hungry redcoats led by
Brother Tom. After the lunch thore's
likely to be some one more than ready
to'escort her back in tho dusk and the
drizzle, and it's thon that, though sho
has not been in at the death, she gets
her enjoyment o ;t of hunting.
Much better specialized, tho crown
and summit Indeed in hor type, is the
girl who finds her ideal Of biiss in 'a
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igood run." Tho consciousness of bav- j
ing "gone straight" from start to finish
gives this sort of girl a perfect satisfac?
tion and contentment not to be obtained
otherwise, oven by getting up early or
reading to sick old women, "doing
straight'" in her vocabulary means talc?
ing every tiling, keeping a good place
and not getting thrown out, however I
long tho run or stifl the country. '
At her best, this your true hunting
i l)i,ina is a line broe;:y sort of girl, as
fat removed from the "horsey woman"
on the one side as she from tho pony j
rider on the other. Sho is liko no
other variety of young woman. Sho has ;
lived in the saddle, from babyhood and
tho wild delight of a rattling gallop is
I her ono keen pleasure. Hunting is the I
[^excitement of her life, and she can be
I very learned in her stable talk, though j
''to do her justice she is not so often or
without provocation. Praise her brown I
.mare Venus and she will tell you tho \
groom pronounces tho name Wenus
whon ho doesn't say Vennus for variety.
Add that sho must, bo well off for horse?
flesh for you have seen her on a well- '
bred looking black and sho will an?
swer:
"Oh! you must mean The Curate, ho 1
has a white marl; down his nose which
would stand for a shirt front if it were
not in the w rong place, and lie is a most
useful, hard-work-ing animal, but not
especially in t erest i tig."
The hunting damsel In threo cases out
of four is without brothers or sisters,
and has a father who thinks ho is doing
his duty by hor until she "makes a set?
tlement" by giving her the same al?
lowance he would have given a son,
keeping two hunters for her and let?
ting her in all tilings take her own line.
This line brings her out on a bunting
day on a handsome filly just over fifteen
hands and prancing as if muscled with
watch springs. She wears a dark brown
or blue liabit which is.severely smart,
for sho doesn't approve of any tiling
i gaudy in tho way of waistcoats or
shirts; those do not look business like,
nor do sweeping skirts, so hers stop just
at hor heels. She may take tho wind
flush out of her cheeks with relays of
hot cloths after a run and before dinner,
but when in chaso of a fox she would
no vor cover her eyes with a vail. This is
"missish" in her opinion. To ho "miss
ish" is worse than to be criminal. She
uses sometimes a whip and sometimes
a crop, and when riding to a distant
meet a neat silvor sandwich box is at?
tached to her saddle.
She. is very good to the handsome det?
rimental on a glngor-colorcd four-year
old who offers to ho her pilot, but that
does not hinder her from laughing when
heavy as there's more
in November-? she leaves
>f ten minutos in a ditch
vault, out of which
"Tho impudence." she thinks, "of the
youngster to imagine he could show the
way to me!"
After this she keeps her eye on the
best of tho male ridors, or, for she often
seems to havo a sort of instinct which
way tho fox is going to run, she chooses
her own direction. Thero is only ono
man in tho field in whom she fools any
(jonuino interest, and this is tho rich
Colonel who is said to bo likely to take
tho hounds when they aro given up by
the present master. It's not the money,
one must own. that attracts her. but
after the unhappy beast is "bested" and
she has received tho brush, the thought
will come as tho Colonel puts his big
roan at hcrsido that she would be quito
in her place as tho wife of a Master of
Foxhounds.
Diana become "horsey" is a degraded
type, to use the Darwinian vernacular.
This bad edition of "Lady Gay Spanker"
may be of any sort, age or condition.
Sometimes she is thirty, handsome and
fashionable. Sometimes she is forty
live, speaks a broad dialect and has no
standing among the "county fan lilies."
In any case she would be recognized in
Yokohama as British to the backbone
If she is a lino lady.sho rides mngnUi
cently and mixes her stable slang with
an argot not widely dissimilar from that
of Billingsgate or Whitechapel. if sho
is a rollicking, fox-hunting Midlands
dame her speech is cleaner, for she
talks horse pure and simple, but she is
not nice to look at, for sho crops her
hair, is solid of flosh and "blowsybolla" |
of complexion and bumps up and down
when she rides. In either event, she
is glib of ages, weights, records and
pedigrees, enlarges on a mare's quar?
ters, legs and the way in which sho is
ribbed up, and speaks of "negotiating it
fence.'* or of chappies "getting awful
croppers, you know," In a way
to confuse and confound the
uninitiated listonc?. The female mem?
ber of the elite is the most mas?
culine-looking of the several varieties
of horsey women, though there is little
difference in this particular. The heavy
dame whoso avoirdupois would break
down, ono would think, tho strongest i
weight-currier, has often the most go in
her. and care.; not how atrocious the
weather or bow far from home they [
"kill." Tho fashionable horsey woman
bus one decided ml vantage, in that she !
is chums with the effeminate-looking j
but Sttalgltt-riding swells of her own ,
"swageer" London sot, while the other
is rather dospiscd by tho country gen- i
tlemen. ?
All the horsey women have one point
In common; their riding habit-; may bo j
immaculate or sloitchy?thepllto stable '
woman has tho smartest in all England i
and the bouncing, jouncing heavy- ,
weight tho most slovenly ? but the j
skirts aro invariably short enough to |
make the riding boots conspicuously .
visible. All the horsey women use
crops Instead of whips, and all the j
fashionables carry (tasks wltli bayonet |
tops buckled to the saddle bow.
It. is tho grief of her life to a woman j
wdio has ridden if the time comes when
she is obliged to take to a lumbering
barouche, a coachman and footman and
a pair of ponderous animals. Yet, still, I
she does not absent herself from tho '
gathering of the chins. It made a spirit- !
ed seej.e ;>s I s aw it last Tuesday, the j
second meet of November of the York?
shire foxhounds a few miles out of this !
old cathedral city. There was a white '
frost on the grass and tbo brown leaves
roll od under foot in billows. The ;
hawthorn hedges wore bare but thero J
was color in the reddening holly her- .
rles. Tho whole country side seemed
out to enjoy the autumnal sunshine. I
Hundreds and bund reds a-foot, on horso- !
back, in pony trans, and village carts
crowded tho lanes. Now and again a :
red-coaled huntsman galloped by. The i
"gentry," whether "country" or titled, !
made a bravo showing on tine-bred
horses. Thero were porky girls in pony
carls who whistled for their betters to ;
pull up and whipped their horses un?
mercifully. There was Mrs. Major j
Somebody, the wife of tho master of ',
hounds, who <;at high on her j
Jog cart, whoso coachman woro
a cockade and whose footman hung on, j
seemingly by his eyelids on the narrow ,
ledge seat behind. There were quiet,
rigid-looking women on quiet hacks
who hunted as they prayed because a ;
decent respect for the opinions of so?
ciety demanded it, and jolly girls, just !
out of the school-room, on their first ]
ponies, and a l)i Vernon on a big black
horso who seemed to be getting a deal '?
of amusement out of a couple of dudo
hunters -spiele, span and dainty young
men.
The ''start" was not a sensational
thing to witness; the huntsman, who is
tho paid servant of the hunt and is re- i
sponsiblo for the real work done, led |
the hounds keeping them together
by calling their names and sounding
the horn, while the master of hounds
leisurely maintained his dignity. This
huntsman was a grizzled old follow,who
until ho warmed up to his task looked
serious, not to say melancholy. Life
was a heavy proposition to him
and in tho midst of the merry?
making throng ho wore an air '
:>f painful respectability. There was
only one point about the sport markedly
.1 Hiermit from that form of tho Ameri?
can imitation which concerns itself
with a fox ami not with a bag of anise
seed; the pack of hounds had more
tongue. American dogs seem to realize
that anglonianin has its ridiculous side,
and save for a few mufliod yelps they
are apt to keep pretty still; but theso |
Yorkshire hounds set up a canine shout
when they started tho .fox across the
Hold, they kept shouting as they tore
after him, followed by men and women
?straining every nerve to watch the
game, they whined and fretted and !
scolded when they lost tho scent and
straggled ingloriously noses to tho
ground, and .hey exulted savagely when
they found it again and sprang eager to i
kill after their forlorn little prey. Men
xre bloodthirsty animals, and so in a
bunting country are women.
Eliza Putnam Heatox.
A Mutual Sizing Up.
Salvationist (stopping Jack on the
road)?Young man. are you ready to dio?
.lack?Look here, my friend, I'm en?
tirely unarmed and haven't a cent about
riir.-Thr liin ?.
For Bargains in Real Estate,
Fine residence and business property, in any part of Roanoke,
call on or address
L. L. POWELL & COMPANY
Roanoke, Va. Office Stewart Building, Third avenue, opposite city postoff
To Francis Barrett & Co,
ice.
jKE
Wo have a very fine quality of crushed coke. This is now being very
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you need the supply, so as to bo sure to have it at the time needed.
28 Salem avenue upstairs.
II. D. Woottiam,
formerly with X. & W. 11. R.
E. A. lll.akk,
Formerly with X. & W. R. R.
O
Real Estate and insurance Agents, 13 Jeffer?
son street, Roanoke, Va.
Lock box 266.
3 , ^
W. S. gooch,
President.
Correspondence solicited.
novl2-2m
C E. HOOK.
Vice President.
H. L. CHILES
Sec y it Tr.,
T. Francis Barrett <& Co.
Lumber, Laths and Shingles.
]>nUders, give us a cull before placing your orders.
Office 28 Salem avenue upstairs,
d Dominion Investment Co.
OFFICE IN CITIZENS' BANK BUILDING.
Makesand Negotiates First-Class Investments.
nov23-tf
HAFER.
No. 5 SALEM AVE. - - - FULL STOCK
jnn0.tf REPA T RING PR CY\ [PTLY EXECUTED.
For heavy-weight suits and
D
GrO TO
mm
Jefferson Street.
WYTHE COUNTY, VA.
Distinctly the Richest Mini Town in Soutliwest Virginia.
The largest mines, the richest lands, the finest timber surrounds Ivauboo.
The No. 1 furnace of the New River Mineral Company now in successful
operation.
tr
Roanoke Trust, Loan and Safe Deposit Co.
Statement, October 31,1 890.
iirsourck8.
Loans and discounts.
Stocks.
Real estate.
Furniture.
Cash on hand and in banks
Expenses and taxes.
.. 1 is
,007 :!l
,205 00
,500 00
(100 00
,503 53
,SS7
Capital
MAmr.iTiKS.
SGS0,013 .je,
I Undivided profits and gross
earnings.
Deposits on certificate.
Deposits on check.
Hills payable.
Rediscounts.
? .?250,000 00
127,085 15
05,084 7."{ j
107,450 03
5,058 33 I
34,735 j
Large Foundry, Machine Shops
and Stove Works
l ndor construction. Free sites and liberal inducements to manufacturers.
Immens.-limestone and iron and zinc mines aro being worked or developed
within the town. Important industries secured, and negotiations pending
for otiiers.
P. D. TERRY,
I lireclors: H.
Pros.
S. Trout. Ed
w. Nil
J. A.
8080,013 10 i
s w. .tamison,secy. j railroad junction in the heart of the greatest
tinger. S. W. Jamison, P. L. Terry, . ? ? .1 , , ?, _, ? , -t-i 1
lamison. iron region in the United States. The only
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Roanoke, Va.
Pulaski City, Va.
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Bluefield, W. Va.
The above houses offer superior accommodations to the travel?
ling public. Sample rooms for commercial men.
ZTred 23. Foster, ZL/Esuza-siger.
The world famous llmonito and mountain ores of the Cripple Creek Val
ley and the celebrated tiossan and magnetic oros of Carroll county are within
minimum haul of Ivanhoo. In direct communication with the Pooahontus
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passed by the celebrated mountain resorts of the world. Vast tracts of Virgin
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Magnificent hotel, stores and dwellings under
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ivanhoe Land and improvement Co.
Drewers and Dottlers of Pure Lager Deer.
Export Seer et Speciality..
Telephone, No. 104, Roanoke, Virginir '
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