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.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45