I04 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



foolish objections of those serious gentlemen who mean 

 well, but do not know what they are talking about. If 

 they say that foxhunting is against religion, they 

 advance an assertion from which I beg leave respectfully 

 to dissent. I have my clogs and my sins — the former I 

 like, the latter I am sincerely sorry for ; but we are not 

 all born with the same dispositions, and what is hateful 

 to these serious gentlemen is delightful to me. Many 

 good qualities combine to constitute a genuine fox- 

 hunter. Of these, the first and most essential, is good- 

 humour. And here I must confess to my own 

 deficiency ; m)' temper is not the most amiable in the 

 world, bu'. my ebullitions of temper only last for a 

 moment, and when they are over I would not hesitate 

 to clasp to my bosom the very persons to whom I 

 may have spoken most roughly. And now, gentlemen, 

 I beg you will allow me to offer you my warmest and 

 most heartfelt thanks for the magnificent piece of plate 

 you have done me the honour to present to me. I 

 shall value it to the last moment of my life, and this 

 happy day I shall always regard as the proudest and 

 most glorious of my existence. You have done me a 

 greater honour than I could ever have hoped to have 

 attained to. I thank you all from the bottom of my 



