276 EEMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



of the proprietors. In France and Italy the foxes some- 

 times do great damage to the vineyards, by feeding 

 on the grapes, and of this fruit we know that he is 

 immoderately fond, and he gets very fat upon it. 

 Notwithstanding the mischievous qualities of Eeynard, 

 one cannot help feeling regard for an animal which 

 affords such excellent field sport to the fox-hunters 

 of this country. To stand high in the opinion of 

 this class a man requires to have strong nerves, be a 

 good rider, and have a sharp and acute eye to overcome 

 the obstacles which may impede his progress in an en- 

 closed and stiff country, more especially when the scent 

 is good and the hounds going at their full speed. Of 

 all field sports I think there is nothing so exciting as a 

 good run for thirty or forty minutes without a check, 

 and killing your fox. What joy and pleasure is ex- 

 pressed in all the countenances of the persons who are 

 so fortunate as to be in at the death, and who have 

 had the good luck to be well mounted. When quartered, 

 many years ago, at Leicester, I went out once, in 

 March, with the Quorn hounds, kept by old Mr. 

 Meynell, who is considered the father of fox-hunters, 

 from his great skill and knowledge of this manly 

 amusement. He has been heard to say that if a man 

 had been a regular fox-hunter for half a century he 

 would still, at the end of that time, have much to 

 learn in hunting the sly and crafty Eeynard. I suspect 

 there are few men alive now that can say they have 

 hunted with Mr. Meynell's hounds. 



The fox has some most determined and inveterate 

 enemies in the gamekeepers, and sometimes their mas- 

 ters are in this respect just as bad as the servants, and 

 there can be no doubt that considerable numbers of them 



