348 
Richmond's huntsman,whose hounds bein 
’ hunting at the end of the season 1783, and 
coming to a check, was asked the reason hy 
is master; “‘ Why, my Lord, it must be 
owing to those damn’d stinking violets, I 
think.” : 
«© The second was of Lord Stawell’s hunts- 
man, who having rode after his hounds into 
the garden of More Park, near Farnham, 
where the sward walks are kept remarkably 
neat, and where his horse was t aitay mischief, 
was called to very sharply by the gardener; 
who told him that his master and mistress 
never rode thera; who was answered by the 
buntsmian (going off in a gallop), ‘ That's 
very strange, for I never saw finer riding 
greund in all my life.” : 
The natural history of the fox him- 
self succeeds, taken chiefly from Buffon 
and other writers, with original anec- 
dotes which our limits will not permit us 
to insert. 
The stag is the next animal of chase, 
and, as royal game, may be thought by 
some to have a right to priority in a book 
of rural sports. Mr. Daniel is of a dif- 
ferent opinion; and with a benevolence 
which becomes him as a man, and a 
loyalty which does him honour as a Bri- 
tish subject, feelingly expresses his regret 
that his sovereign, by an exclusive chase 
of the stag, deprives himself of a plea- 
sure which would greatly add to his 
happiness. 
“© At the present day, as an object of 
chase to the sportsman, the stag requires but 
cursory mention ; those indeed wha are fond 
ad age gor parade in hunting, will not ac- 
cede to this opinion, but the only mode in 
which this chase cau recommend itself to the 
eal sportsman, is, when the deer is looked 
for and found like other game, which hounds 
ed and it is not uncommon for an out- 
ing fallow deer, tried for and unharboured in 
this way, to shew much sport with a pack of 
harriers, especially where the country is in- 
closed. 
“* At present very few hounds (except those 
ofthe royal establishment) are kept for this 
amusement exclusively, ; and were the king 
Once to see a fox well found and killed hand- 
somely, he would in all probability give a de- 
cided preference in favour of fox-hounds ; for 
what a marked difference is there, between 
conveying,in a covered cart, an animal nearly 
as bigas the horse that draws it, to a particniar 
spot,where he is liberated ; and cheerly riding 
to the cover side, with all the extacy of hope 
and expectation.” 
Of hare hunting, as might be expect- 
ed after what has been said of the stag, 
Mr. Daniel makes little account. It is 
too tame and too stationary for his ac- 
tive spirit. He accordingly gives us 
scarcely any thing concerning it from his 
/ 
DANIEL’s RURAL SPORTS: 
own experience; but has been liberal in hig 
guotations from other authors. Xeno- 
phon, Mr. Blome, the ingenious author of 
Observations on Hari-huney and Mr, 
Beckford are his authorities. 
The following instance of an uncon- 
querable passion for hate-huiting we 
have extracted as a curiosity. 
«© But various as are the sorts of hounds; 
and heavy the expence of keeping them, yet 
the mahner in which the following little 
pack was managed, by the persevering ceco4 
nomy of their owner, merits remark. With 
half a dozen children, as many couple of 
hounds, and two hunters, did Mr. Osbaldes- 
ton (clerk to an attorney) keep himself, fa- 
mily, and these dogs and horses, upon Sixty 
Pounds per annum: This also was effected 
in London, without running in debt; and 
with always a good coat on his back. To 
explain this seeming impossibility, it should 
be observed, that alter the expiration of the 
office-hours, Mr. O. acted as an accountant 
for the butchers in Clare-market, who paid 
him in offal; the choicest morsels of this he 
selected for himself and family, and with the 
rest he fed his hounds, which were kept in 
the garret. His horses were lodged in his 
cellar, and fed on the grains ftom a neigh- 
bouring brew-house, ated on damaged corn, 
with which he was supplied by a corn-chan-+ 
dier, whose books he kept in order: Once 
or twice a week in the season he hunted, 
and by giving a hare, now and then, to the 
farmers over whose grounds he sported, he 
secured their good-will and permission ; ahd 
several gentlemen (struck with the extraor- 
dinary ceconomical mode of his hunting ar- 
rangements which were generelly known) 
winked at his going over their manors. Mr. O. 
was the younger son of a gentleman of good 
family, but small fortune, in the north of 
Baglend; and having imprudently married 
one of his father’s servants, was turned out 
of doors, with no other fortune than a sou- 
thern hound, big with pup, and whose off- 
spting from that time became a source of 
amusement to him.” 
Coursing is closely connected with 
hare-hunting ; and here the natural his- 
tory of the greyhound is properly intro- 
duced. The tollowing anecdotes con- 
cerning its swiftness and ardour are se« 
lected, as affording points of comparison 
with the foxhound. 
«< With respect to the swiftness of the 
greyhound, the following questions were sub- 
mitted to a gentleman, whose greyhounds are 
known to be as swift as any in the kingdom. 
Whether the speed ofa greyhound is to 
that of a first rate race-horse for the distance 
of a mile, or for a greateror smaller distance ? 
and, whether the speed of any hare _(sup- 
posing the dog and hare to be started without 
the law usually allowed to the hare in course 
: 
— 
