xii rrc/dcc. 



Hunting- iilvvuys has been, and always will be, regarded 

 as the most popular amusement in England, because it is 

 the only sport in which everyone — either riding, driving, 

 or on foot — can participate. It is therefore of great interest 

 to compare past with present hunting, and the progress 

 made in most respects with the decline in some few 

 particulars. There is an old saying, which we quote for 

 just what it is worth, that in former days scent was so 

 good that when after a run the fox was not killed, hounds 

 were laid on in the early morning of the next day to 

 liunt u]) his drag, and under these conditions he would 

 he more easily killed than another. In those days the 

 country was not drained, and held scent better, the fields 

 were not so full of cattle as now, there were more grass 

 fields and less cultivation, and therefore fewer people 

 emplo^'Cd who might head a fox. There were also but 

 few railroads, and a small field. Now the country is inter- 

 sected by railways, but at the same time it must be said 

 that they largely contribute to the enjoyment of sport, 

 because many can reach the best meets by train, and return 

 in the same way, who otherwise could not hunt. Foxes 

 and good coverts are more plentiful than they were. 

 Hounds are kept in finer condition, and combine greater 

 pace and quality, with as much hunting powder and more 

 endurance, than they formerly possessed.* We shall record 



* In 1779 Mr. Smith Bai-ry estiiblislied a pack of t'oxhouiids in Cheshire, 

 which he kept entirely at his own expense. He matched his celebrated hound Bluecap 

 and a bitch named Wanton to riin against Mr. Meynell's Richmond and another, over 

 the Beacon Course at NewTiiarket, for 500 guir.eas. Mr. Smith Barry's hounds were 

 trained at Tiptree Heath, Essex, by the well-known huntsman, Will Crane. Their 

 training was to run a fox drag three times a week over grass for eight or nine miles. 

 They were kept to this exercise from the 1st August to the 28th September, being fed 

 on oatmeal and sheep's trotters. On the .30th September the match was run, by making 

 the accustomed drag from the Rubbing House to the starting point of the Beacon 

 Course, the four hounds being immediately laid on the scent. Mr. Barry's Bluecap 

 came in first, and Wanton, close behind, second. The Beacon Course was run in a 

 few seconds more than eight minutes, about the same time as an ordinary plate 

 horse will take to do the course in with 8st. on his back, and within which time the 

 celebrated horse Eclipse is said to have done the same distance at York with 12st. up. 



