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speech. But English horses are not the best for everybody everywhere.

Sir J. C. How do you know that? That is one of the wide generalities which everybody takes leave to affirm, and nobody is able to prove. The question is too loose to be worth discussing. What Horse Shows have done is to revise, supplement, and correct the false impressions produced about horses by successive generations of writers, each of whom copied from the other and carried on the misguidance. Horse Shows have substituted for book-knowledge the more trustworthy impressions gathered from inspection, and the mere reminiscence, "Our forefathers were good horsemen," has been replaced by a desire in the young men themselves to become horsemen.

Admiral A. You maintain, then, that exhibitions of horses re educational: that they increase the average standard of knowledge?

Mr. Y. W. And widen the average aim of the rising generation? I do not think Sir John goes too far, nor even so far as he might, when he implied that Horse Shows have popularised the desire to ride well, drive well, and distinguish between horse and horse. Horse Shows have not only made horses better for special purposes, but trained thousands who otherwise would have wanted opportunity to appreciate the power of horses and their own.

Mr. V. B. As Lord Beaconsfield once taught men to repeat the phrase, "We are an imperial people," the Horse Shows will make us claim, "We are an equestrian people." Eh?

Sir J. C. I make a bow to the memory of Dizzy! He was a grand phrase-maker. But I don't recollect that he knew much about a horse! Yet the mention of him is so far propos that he represented the divorce which so long was in force in this country between "culture" and athletic pursuits. Of all athletics, horsemanship is the culmination and the flower! Admiral A. Hear, hear! No doubt the average young Englishman of to-day does cultivate his body, as well as his brains, more than in the earlier years of the century. Mere bookworms hold a lower place now than they did. A man who can row, run, jump, shoot, play cricket, and, especially, ride, ranks higher than he did-not merely among young men, but among thinking men of all ages. We have taken the measure of the "crammed ones" better than we once did. And to this sounder view of life, no doubt Horse Shows, and the riding of amateurs. in the ring, have materially contributed.

Mr. Y. W. Shows have done a great deal of good beyond all question. But they require supervision, lest they put mere appearance in a horse in a higher position than it deserves.

Sir J. C. That, again, is another over-wide assumption. I deny that in a Show we can go much beyond judging by appearances. The other tests of a horse must take place else

where. Shows do not stand alone; still, I admit that as yet their promoters do not "make affinities" as they ought.

Admiral A. That is what I say. A man cannot support a Horse (or other) Show, and stand aloof all the rest of the year from other organisations, supposing his work to be done. All manly pursuits interpenetrate one another. The man who has taken interest in a stallion will look at his produce whereever he meets with them-in the dray, the team, in the cart, or the hunting field-in quite a different mood. His knowledge of horseflesh will always be growing.

Mr. Y. W. And men who go to the Stallion Shows will find there opportunities of meeting persons similarly minded, and they can make acquaintances who join in hiring stallions, and they get the chance of picking up one. There is no dispute as to the utility of Horse Shows to breeders.

The MID. "Whyles ay! and whyles nae." Some Shows do harm.

Admiral A.: Is there any institution, or living thing, of which as much may not be said? All that one can possibly expect is, that Shows be generally beneficent: and beneficent to such an extent that the benefit more than compensates for the occasional mischief which sometimes must ensue from every plan.

Sir J. C. The greatest folly to me seems the attempt to make all Shows-Horse Shows, if you prefer to stick to one class—as much as possible an imitation of "the best show," by which term "best" nine people out of ten only mean the biggest.

Mr. Y. W. I am entirely with you. Country showsindeed, most live-stock shows-go further astray in the endeavour to make them as big and of as long duration as possible, than from any other cause. Of course I admit that to make a show pay its expenses, it may be necessary to get many (and sometimes opposing) influences, pro tem., to combine.

Sir J. C. It is ridiculous to see little counties with a population of 500,000 trying to do exactly as does one with two millions; and instead of having one-day's show, with all expenses cut down (as can be done with a one-day show), have two or three days of a tented plain thinly sprinkled over with visitors. It is like a man who might give you a good hot rump steak and potatoes, asking you to a feed of five courses, with many dishes, half of them dummies.

Admiral A. Quite so! A county which shows its own stock well, and uses every means to bring out the peculiarities of its prominent breeds, is better worth visiting than ten mere far-off copies of the exhibitions of R.A.S.E.

Mr. Y. W.: As to that we are all agreed. Every show must have its spécialité. But after each breed or special society has had its own display in its own fashion, its officials should.

exchange something more than mere verbal compliments with similar societies. They should confer. It would be quite possible so to divide the work as to get it better done than it is now.

Sir. J. C.: Yes. And I look upon what you call breed societies with a wide view. I say a hunting field is a man, horse, and dog show, and that for hunting men to stand aloof from horse exhibitions is suicidal policy. The more hunting men show their sympathy with breeders of horses, the better horses they are likely to get, and the more foxes and the freer leave to hunt them.

Admiral A. The hunt stallion-selected by the master of the country to be subsidised, if not maintained, according as funds may permit should be a prominent feature in every county show; and so should the colts and fillies begotten by him or his predecessor. And this not in the tone of patronage, which sometimes is assumed, but in a genuine conviction that horsebreeders, horse-show men, and hunting men are all developments of one and the same propensity-the natural love of active pursuits and of the domination of brute life.

Mr. Y. W. The more hunting men one gets upon the committee of management at our summer shows, the less chance there will be of the decisions in one section-in the class made for hunters going astray, as they sometimes have. Before entering the ring there should be some opportunity of seeing if horses-shown as hunters-can really perform over a country and do an ordinary fence and ditch.

Sir J. C. Just so. The co-operation of hunting men is just as necessary to get hunter classes probably judged, as a proper milk test is for determining whether the awards have been right in giving the prizes for dairy cattle.

Admiral A. Ah! You want to substitute trial by jury for justice's judgment! You would have preliminary examinations Lefore the final decisions in the public ring comes on!

Sir J. C. And why not? If the Grand Jury system be desirable to determine if there be prima facie evidence against a criminal before he stands his real trial, why not a previous (xam.-a "little go," in fact-before the hunters' places are finally determined?

Mr. Y. W.: I do not see why there should not. And I do not see why the Government money for stallions should not be shared by Hackney and Cleveland sires as well as thoroughbreds.

Admiral A. The two questions do not hang together. To have hunters examined in a class by some hunting men, before the judges attempt to place them, is a way to get one thing-a test of hunting merit-thoroughly well done. To divide a sum of money, which is not enough for its present purpose, i.e., development of one kind of horse-breeding, among half-a-dozen rival sections, would be, in my opinion, to fritter away all its power of doing good, i.e., would do several

things indifferently, instead of one thing well. Because I agree with Mr. West's former, I should oppose his second proposal. Sir J. C. You override the scent! We don't want to go one inch beyond what we can show to be true. Hunting men will have the better chance of being well mounted when horsebreeders have easy access to suitable sires. Horse-breeders will

have the better chance of paying customers when hunting is encouraged. Show managers will have better chance of a good gate-money when they take into their councils, and get concerted action with, horse-breeders and hunting men both.

Mr. Y. W.: I do not think there will be any difference of opinion upon that

The MID. No difference of opinion! I dissent from everybody

Mr. V. B. And I from The Midlothian !

Sir J. C. Patience, gentlemen! I don't deny the services of the Press, nor the infinite help that Ireland has lent to the breeding of hunters; but don't you think the nationality, professional and class crazes have been carried far enough? They all seem to me to be very like starting two or more studbooks when one would have done. Comprehensiveness rather than exclusiveness will be the feature of the coming century.

Admiral A. If you are going to prophesy, I must part company! The great Gallic sentiment, "Nothing is so sure to happen as the unexpected," is at least as true in horse-breeding as in other departments of human industry.

Mr. Y. W.: You mean that the Shows of the future won't be mere repetitions of the Shows of the past; that there will be new features.

Admiral A.: I mean a good deal more! I mean that whereas attention is now concentrated upon four or five types of horses-the racer, the hunter, the high pacer, carriage or harness horse, the park hack, and the cob or pony-it is quite upon the cards that other types may come into notice, and may be supported by public favour. The possibilities of modified types, within the limit of British live-stock, seem to me to be quite innumerable.

Sir J. C. And the possibilities of modifications of Shows are, at least, as numerous. That the Show system corresponds to some general craving, is proved by the rapidity with which the number of exhibitions has grown. But that we have exactly hit upon the right idea of any Show, let alone a Horse Show, seems well open to discussion

Mr. Y. W. But not to-day, for we shall soon be at King's Cross. What are you going to look for at Islington first?

Admiral A.: To see whether the stallions that receive the premium for breeding weight-carriers are deserving the distinction conferred upon them of being subsidised by the State. Sir J. C. To see whether ten or a dozen men can anywhere VOL. LIII.-NO. 361.

combine to manage business so that it is not a good deal more narrow and more one-sided than it is when a similar business is administered by a single individual of average capacity.

The MID.

To see if

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Mr. V. B.

And call them mad!

To see if I cannot get some good copy! Mr. Y. W. Here is one of the company who has been silent throughout. What do you say, Mr. A. Pettenant ?

Mr. A. P.: I think the gentleman who affirmed that he dissented from everybody (and yet cannot state his own opinions without borrowing someone else's words to put it in) is like a housekeeper who cannot fetch the supper-beer without asking, right and left, for the loan of a jug! I differ from him. I think there is something to be said for the opinion everyone else has expressed. But horse-breeding is too much a business for great folk for me to have any opinion about it at all.

Heard Outside:-" Tickets, Gents, Tickets."

Days to Memory Dear."

II.-DRY FLY FISHING.

LAST month my theme was of "Esox Lucius," and, in turning to "Salmo Fario," I do not think many of your readers will accuse me of descending from the sublime to the ridiculous. As a matter of fact, there can be no comparison in these fish, in regard to their sporting qualities, their personal appearance, or as a dish for the table. The countenance of the pike, with its ugly forbidding look, and long projecting jaws well furnished for attack, is, to say the least of it, not a pleasing one to gaze on. Can one forget the scene depicted by Leech, where a savage-looking and voracious pike, "with open mouth,” is making a most determined attack on the immortal Mr. Briggs, much to that gentleman's horror and discomfort? The form of the trout, on the other hand, is a thing of joy and beauty to behold"; the variegated spots and iridescent hues causing one to look on its fair proportions with pleasure, as a connoisseur gazes on some beautiful work of art. There are other reasons still why the pursuit of the latter is the more popular; for while pike fishing is followed during the winter season, when the country is bare of foliage and the bleak winds blow with benumbing force, trout fishing

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