Mr. J. M. Richardson's Writings Collated 



of the hounds as well. If you cannot depend on earths being 

 stopped at the proper time, perhaps the surest way to keep 

 foxes above ground is permanently to close the earths with a 

 large faggot, removing the same at the end of February. Foxes 

 do not want preserving ; " you preserve jam," as the late Mr. 

 George Lane- Fox used to say. All they want is to be left 

 alone and the coverts kept quiet and they will look after them- 

 selves, and a huntsman will soon know where to find his fox. 



Leicestershire. 



Just as Newmarket is recognized all the world over as the 

 headquarters of the Turf, and, according to its thick-and-thin 

 admirers, "the only place to train a donkey in," so in like 

 manner does Leicestershire still stand out by itself amongst 

 what Sam Weller of immortal memory was pleased to term 

 the " Fashionables," as the only country fit for any one worthy 

 of the name of sportsman to hunt in. And not bad judges 

 either, for there can be no question but that a horseman with 

 any pretensions to ride up to the motto, " Be with them I will," 

 having, like Mr. Sawyer, hardened his heart and betaken him- 

 self for a season to the shires, is completely spoilt for hunting 

 elsewhere, and would probably, at the finish, share to a great 

 extent the feelings of the swell Meltonian of old who, when 

 asked if he had read a certain novel just then all the rage, 

 replied, " Read a book ! Why, my dear fellow, I would as 

 soon hunt in Yorkshire ! " 



Since the ox-rail has been replaced by that detestable 

 invention, so dangerous to life and limb of both horse and 

 rider, known as barbed wire, which, when put up in the summer 

 and supposed to be removed during the hunting season, is still 

 — worse luck! — occasionally to be met with, the fences are 

 much easier to negotiate than formerly, there being now no 



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