CHAPTER III 



SPORTSMAN 



"^ rA 



Better to hunt the fields for health imbought, 

 Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught 



LL men who are fox-hunters are 

 not sportsmen ; and that 

 ^■'%'^^W^^'^'l7^r\ ' some even wish not to be 

 thought so, the following anec- 

 dote may prove. In the year 

 182 — the writer was staying 

 at Melton during the season, 

 with only a short stud of hunters 

 and a hack of his own, besides 

 what he hired. As may be sup- 

 posed, he never thought of seeing a second run 

 with the hounds the same day. On one occasion, 

 having seen a good fox killed, he merely stopped 

 to see the second found, and then went home. 

 Some time during the afternoon he met two 

 men, well known in the hunt, who had gone the 

 second run, and inquired of them if they had 



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