THE SPORTSWOMAN.*
THERE are many libraries of sport, and it may not be imme- diately apparent why women, who share the sports of men,
should not be content to share also the instruction that man's experience has to offer. A perusal, however, of the excellent treatises which the editor of these volumes, Miss Slaughter, has collected from her fellow-sportswomen soon supplies a reason for this new departure in sporting literature ; and an honest reader will certainly admit that as long as women ride on a side-saddle and shoot in petticoats, they will need the experi- ence and advice of their own sex. He will also admit that, with one or two exceptions, that advice could not be tendered in a more clear and convincing form than it is by Miss Slaughter's contributors, and that a good deal of the in- struction might be very profitably considered by the sporting man.
Take, for example, the capital chapter on " Fox.hunting " con- tributed by Mrs. Burn. It is true that a certain prejudice exists against the presence of women in the hunting field, and that in the case of a good many women that prejudice is only too well founded. But they are by no means the only offenders, and there are many men who would do well to lay to heart the injunctions that Mrs. Burn gives to her sister- fox-hunters. Women are not alone in "riding jealous," and their occasional selfishness and want of consideration are only too often equally displayed by the ruder man without the same excuse. Mrs. Burn herself is evidently one who follows the hounds for the pleasure of hunting, and not for the purpose of showing off her prowess on horseback, and is more concerned in watching the hounds than in cutting down her fellows in the field. The pith of her excellent advice, more directly addressed to women, may be summed up in four words,—be quiet ; be quick. Be quiet, not only outside the covert, where idle conversation frequently may mar a whole day's sport, but also in the actual riding of your horse :—
" One great thing to learn, and especially I think for a woman, is to go quietly and not to splash. One hates to see the women of a hunt always on the gallop, going from covert to covert across the fields. It looks so much better, and is so much wiser to trot quietly over them than to go helter skelter past everybody else, probably squelching muddy water over them as you go, and incurring the condemnation of the opposite sex, who, if they are sportsmen of the right sort, will seldom be seen bustling between times When you have once chosen your pilot, obey him. If at a gate or in a crowd, or for any other reason, even if you do not understand it, he should want you to go first, Go ! Nip through quickly and quietly, and don't keep others waiting whatever you do. Take your chance whenever it comes, and take every chance that offers without hanging back, which hinders other people, and without hustling, which annoys them. In fact, if after you have achieved being quiet out hunting you succeed in being quick, you will have begun to grasp the situa- tion."
The same good common-sense characterises the editor's own remarks on hare-hunting and stag-hunting, and the chapter on shooting furnished by Mrs. Lancelot Lowther. To this latter an anonymous contributor has added a list of things to be avoided, which, although it contains one or two counsels of perfection, deserves to be committed to memory. But the injunction,—" Don't wound. If you can't kill neatly, don't fire," if followed out would certainly effect a wonderful saving in the expenditure of cartridges. One of the best contributions, from a literary point of view, is the chapter on "Fishing for Tarpon," by Mrs. Murphy-Grimshaw. One has heard a good deal of tarpon-fishing of late years from enthusiasts on the other side of the Atlantic, but no one has succeeded in describing the sport with more poetic fervour than is to be found here. The obvious objection, however, to
• The Epertsteoninn'e Library. Edited by Frances E, Slaughter, 2 vole. • Ave Erma Intmortalis. By F. Marion Crawford. 2 vols. London: Maolnillon Lsudon: tionatab.e and C ,. [25-.3 and Co. [21s.1 the inclusion of this chapter in the series is the fact that tarpon are not to be found within the British Isles; and if the ladies are to go so far afield for the sports, there was no reason why the editor should not have included chapters upon tiger- shooting or pig-sticking, in both of which sports women have joined. That objection will not apply to the excellent account of salmon-fishing given by Lady Malmesbury,—,5 subject upon which she has already written well and eloquently elsewhere. It is true that none of the writers attempts to treat of her subject exhausti7ely, and that the novice who turns to these pages for full instruction is likely to be somewhat disappointed. Still, for all general purposes the advice given is ample enough; and for particular appli- cation to the sportswoman, whom Nature and convention have handicapped in most pursuits, it has its special value. In one instance we are pleased to see that a writer regards a woman's dress as a help rather than a hindrance. Mrs. Talbot, who discourses upon skating, confesses that " in the matter of dress women have a distinct advantage over men. Our skirt both conceals deficiencies in style, and makes it easier to be graceful, the man with his closer garb being sadly exposed to the fierce light of criticism." But this, we imagine, does not apply to the possible contingency of falling. Mrs. Berens, whose chapter upon " Archery " immediately precedes that on "Skating," is almost the only contributor who betrays the traditional inexactitude of her sex. Speaking of bows, she writes : "I always recommend to a beginner an inexpensive lancewood bow, weighing about twenty-four to twenty-six pounds." And again : " There are many archers who have ruined their style and shooting with too heavy a bow. One weighing twenty-seven or twenty-eight pounds can do all that is necessary for the National Round of sixty and fifty yards." If words mean anything, the reader would take this to mean that the bow should actually weigh some twenty-six pounds,—one need hardly remark, a perfectly absurd and impossible weight. The writer, of course, meant to say that the bow should have a pull of twenty-six pounds' weight, which is a rather different thing. Even to this we are inclined to demur. So light a pull would necessitate too high a trajectory for steady shooting at sixty yards.
We miss any mention of hockey, or of lady's cricket, both sports which have grown in favour during late years. Nor is there anything said on the subject of lady's rowing, though there is more than one good chapter on sailing. But every other sport, even down to croquet, finds its authority, and all the authorities seem to speak with no little knowledge and experience. Their portraits form an attractive addition to the letterpress ; and one would be ungrateful indeed to suggest that fuller illustration of a more technical kind might have been more useful.
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