OBSERVATIONS ON FOXHUNTING. 63 



In 1826 his celebrated work on Foxhunting- (of which 

 500 copies were sold) was pubhshed by subscription under 

 the tide of "Observations on Foxhunting and the Manage- 

 ment of Hounds in the Kennel and the Field, addressed 

 to a young Sportsman about to undertake a hunting estab- 

 lishment, by Colonel Cook, H.P., 28th Dragoons." As the 

 work is not now easily procurable, a short description of its 

 contents may be of interest. 



The dedication to John Warde is followed by a list of 

 380 subscribers, including Mr. Henry John Conyers, Lord 

 Petre, Mr. Charles Newman, Mr. Sampson Hanbury, and 

 many other Masters of Foxhounds. 



The book, like Beckford's " Thoughts on Hunting," is 

 written in the form of a series of letters. Cook's imaginary 

 correspondent is addressed as " My dear ' C.,' " and advised 

 as to the purchase, breeding, entering, feeding, lodging, and 

 physicking of hounds. In his remarks on the preser- 

 vation of foxes the writer is very outspoken as to " the great 

 mania for game," declaring that "the useless quantity of it 

 with which we find most coverts glutted, is a great mis- 

 fortune to foxhunting." He points out the importance of 

 hunting a country regularly, the good and the bad alter- 

 nately, and of making no change in a plan of drawing when 

 fixed upon, and he; lays down the law of foxhunting as to a 



