i8orj NOTES ON THE EPWELL HUNT. 29 



Saw his hounds, unassisted, make out a cold scent. 

 The' misled and o'errode ev'17 yard that they went ; 

 But when once settled on it, to me 'tis quite clear, 

 Go a pace that leaves many great folks in the rear. 

 In short, such a run, in so perfect a style, 

 No country has witness'd a pretty long while. 



Then let Leicestershire vaunt of its far-renown'd speed, 



Let them jostle, or cross, for a start or a lead ; 



Upon selling their nags, more than hunting, intent, 



And scarce knowing the meaning of what is called — sceni. 



All declaiming at once — such a shout, such a yell, 



Doing only what monkies* might do full as well ; 



Where sport depends quite upon knowing the cover, 



And the very best run in ten minutes is over. 



May such hunting as this never fall to my lot, 



Let them race, if they like it ; I envy them not. 



The blood of Old Trojan is all I desire. 



So give me the hounds of the Warwickshire Squire. 



Notes on " The Epwell Hunt ; or, Black Collars in the 

 Eear," from the Supplement to Eural Sports, published in 

 1813 by the Eev. W. B. Daniell : 



This account of a foxhunt in verse was written as a sort of paraphrastic 

 companion to the Billesdon Coplow Poetical Chase, and as a quiz upon tlic 

 Mehonian mode of hunting-. 



" Found he'd lost a fore shoe." 



" Lost shoes " and " dead beat " are synonymous terms in the Leicester- 

 shire ci'eed. Ldeed, so implicit is this article of the Meltonian belief, that 

 many a horse, in addition to the misfortune of breaking his hoof from losing 

 his shoe, has laboured likewise under the aforesaid unavoidable imputation to 

 his everlasting disgrace. 



" No longer complained of tlie pace." 



WHiat kills is the pace. A favourite maxim of Mr. Forester's, of tlie 

 trutli of Avliicli lie seldom loses an opportvmity of endeavouring to make his 

 friends sen><ible. 



" For the sake of the lead." 



A lead by which is to be understood securing the privilege of l)reakiug 

 yom- neck first, and when you fall of being rode over by an huiulred and 

 ninety-nine of the best fellows upon earth to a dead certainty. 



" He kept ow at a scoi*e." 



Score means the sort of pace which perhaps neither you nor your horse 

 ever went before, and if you have not more luck than falls to tlie share of 

 every first expei'imeut of the kind, 'tis ten to one but he falls before he can 

 (what they call) get on his legs, in which case you may rest perfectly satisfied 



* As iu original. 



