378 TMK UKLLA CKUSCA SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



not to be misunderstood in their simple and clear delineation. 

 Amidst the multiplicity of prints of all kinds which are continually 

 issuing from the press, crowding the shop windows, and arresting 

 our peregrinations through the streets, it is gratifying to meet with 

 some, if it be but a few, that partake of the highest qualities of art. 

 The series of plates from the National Gallery issued by the con- 

 federated engravers, are worthy of the countrymen of WOOLLETT, 

 SHARP, SHERWIN, &c. The old masters, from whose pictures they 

 work, will doubtless improve them. We wish them that devotion to 

 their artmanifested by those extraordinary engravers, ALBERT DURER, 

 HOUBRAKEN, BOLSWERT, PAULUS PONTIUS, and others, who did not 

 allow themselves to be tempted aside from the labour of large plates 

 by the more profitable getting up of book prints ; nor shrink from 

 the most tedious details of drawing, and the most difficult manage- 

 ment of colour. 



DESPICABLE FEROCITY OP FOX-HUNTING. 



THE most violent antagonists to the sports and pastimes of the 

 people the most strenuous supporters of associations for the sup- 

 pression of cruelty to animals, may be found in that class of society 

 which has long been the boast, though not exactly the bulwark of 

 Britain our fox-hunting Squirearchy. Is it possible to conceive a 

 more noble recreation for a gallant field, composed of British Peers, 

 Parsons, and Members of Parliament, than riding at full speed after 

 a number of hounds, all gloriously giving tongue, as they snuff up 

 the delicious scent of a strong dog-fox ? What a sublime exercise of 

 the mental powers it involves ! How splendid is the physical effort 

 of being carried over hedges and ditches, " at a racing pace across 

 a most beautiful country, comprising every thing that can delight 

 the most fastidious eye !" What a laudable ambition to buy horses 

 that will not only " live with the hounds," but get in at the death ! 

 Nobody but a thorough fox-hunter can imagine the manly joy of 

 beholding the wretched " varmint" " run into," and torn limb from 

 limb, by twenty couple of magnanimous hounds ! 



To be sure, some of our political wiseacres inquire, of what uti- 

 lity fox-hunting would be, except that once now and then a clerical 

 sportsman's neck is broken ? Of the greatest utility. It is a pas- 

 time that may be pronounced truly patriotic. Is not Reynard a car- 

 nivorous creature? Does he not destroy young partridges and 

 pheasants ? 



This is a modern fox-hunter's view of the subject : but, for 

 our part, we are reluctantly compelled to differ from our honour- 

 able friends. Fox-hunting, in our humble opinion, is dastardly, 

 ferocious, and totally unjustifiable. It tends to perpetuate the brutal 

 ferocity of our aristocrats their cold-blooded tyranny their atro- 

 cious selfishness their utter disregard of those who are weaker than 



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