108 ON THE GRAMPIAN HILLS. 



or other establishments of our well-known dealers, I 

 will engage that you shall, with very little trouble, put 

 together a string of first-class hunters that will carry 

 you over any country in the United Kingdom. On 

 former occasions I have spoken of the presence of 

 ladies in the hunting-field ; and gradually the attend- 

 ance of the fair sex has increased until it has become 

 an invariable rule that a number, many of whom ride 

 thoroughly well to hounds, are found attending the 

 fixtures of all the crack packs. Many of these- 

 votaries of Diana are well mounted, as they should 

 be; but not unfrequently I observe ladies mounted 

 upon brutes with heads like fiddle-cases, legs re- 

 sembling those of a rocking-horse, and mouths as 

 hard as a board of poor-law guardians. What a lady 

 requires is a willing horse, with good temper, light 

 mouth, courage if called upon to show it, and at the 

 same time a perfect fencer, if she is to be carried well 

 to hounds. 



It will be seen by the foregoing particulars thafe 

 hunting at any rate is not one of the pastimes of the 

 country that is affected by the disturbed state of the- 

 political atmosphere, nor seriously influenced by the- 

 clouds now appearing in the horizon. 



