FOX-HUNTING AND THE BRITISH CAVALRY OFFICER.
[To THE EDITOR OF T'HE SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—I admit unreservedly that I did an injustice to the British cavalry officer in my casual reference to the International jumping competition—an injustice which I did not realize till your deserved censure brought it home to me. While I still think (I may, of course, be wrong) that there is less dash in the hunting-field than there was forty or fifty years ago, or even less, I am bound to say that your strictures recall to me instances of British cavalry officers who have, within quite recent memory, distinguished themselves by brilliant and daring horsemanship, and proved themselves as bard and straight riders across country as any of their predecessors. If, therefore, my allusion to foreign triumphs at Olympia and elsewhere seemed to imply disparagement of British prowess, I apologize for using words capable of such misconstruction, and I repudiate any intention of belittling the horsemanship or pluck of our cavalry officers of to-day—whom I yet hope to see victorious over their foreign rivals in the ring.—I am, Beckley, Sussex.
[Nothing could be handsomer or in better spirit than " Thormanby's" letter. We doubt if there is really less dash in the hunting field than formerly, though, no doubt, young men are much busier and more taken up with serious work than they used to be. The drag at the Staff College is by all accounts anything but a peaceful pageant. —En. Spec- tator.]
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