CHAPTER XIII. 



HOUNDS AND HORSES. 



FROM all the great hunting centres the most satis- 

 factory accounts are given of the sport enjoyed during 

 this season, so far as it has gone. Scarcely a day has 

 been lost up to the present time ; the frosts that have 

 been experienced, though severe whilst they lasted, 

 have been of the briefest. Several weeks of dry, 

 genial weather brought the ground into capital con- 

 dition, the scent being greatly improved thereby ; and 

 all the crack packs in the kingdom have reason to 

 boast of downright good sport and many clinking 

 runs. Foxes, as a rale, are plentiful; the sport more 

 popular, if possible, than ever, as proved by the large 

 "fields" that attend the various meets of the three 

 hundred and forty-two packs of hounds that hunt over 

 the United Kingdom. " Men may come and men may 

 go/' but in my opinion hunting-men are as likely to 

 " go on for ever " as any other class, the hereditary 

 love of the chase being one of the most deeply-rooted 

 feelings in the breast of a true Briton. It may be 

 that the style of hunting the stag, the hind, the fox, 

 and the hare is somewhat different from that of old 

 times ; but still the same inbred desire to indulge in 



