ON HUNTING. 



165 



ing terms with a peer, leads others to boast of fox- 

 hunting when the Brighton harriers are more than they 

 can comfortably manage.*' 



The greater number of what are called harriers now- 

 a-days are dwarf fox-hounds, or partake largely of fox- 

 hound blood. 



If Leicestershire is the county for " swells," Devon- 

 shire is the county of sportsmen ; for although there is 

 very little riding to hounds as compared with the mid- 

 land counties, there is a great deal of hunting. Every 

 village has its little pack; every man, woman, and 

 child, from the highest to the humblest, takes an in- 

 terest in the sport ; and the science of hunting is better 

 understood than in the hard-riding, horse-dealing coun- 

 ties. To produce a finished fox-hunter, I would have 

 him commence his studies in Devonshire, and finish his 

 practice in Northamptonshire. On the whole, I should 

 say that a student of the noble science, whose early 

 education has been neglected, cannot do better than go 

 through a course of fox-hunting near Oxford, in the 

 winter vacation, where plenty of perfect hunters are to be 

 hired, and hounds meet within easy reach of the Univer- 

 sity City, six days hi the week, hunting over a country 

 where you may usually be with them at the finish with- 

 out doing anything desperate, if content to come in with 

 the ruck, the ponies, and the old farmers ; or where, if 

 so inclined, you may have more than an average number 

 of fast and furious runs, and study the admirable style of 

 some of the best horsemen hi the world among the 

 Oxfordshire and Berkshire squires. 



Stag-hunting from a cart is a pursuit very generally 

 contemned in print, and very ardently followed by many 

 hundred hard-riding gentlemen every hunting day in 

 the year. A man who can ride up to stag-hounds on a 



