1 86 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



sea. It counsels the lady in her carriage, or the old 

 coachman piloting her children on their ponies, it enables 

 the butcher to come up on his hack, the first-flight man 

 to save his horse, and above all, the huntsman to kill 

 his fox. 



The Duke of Beaufort possesses it in an extraordi- 

 nary degree. When so crippled by gout, or reduced 

 by suffering as to be unable to keep the saddle over a 

 fence, he seems, even in strange countries, to see no less 

 of the sport than in old days, when he could ride into 

 every field with his hounds. And I do believe that 

 now, in any part of Gloucestershire, with ten couple of 

 "the badger-pyed" and a horn, he could go out and 

 kill his fox in a Bath-chair ! 



Perhaps, however, his may be an extreme case. No 

 man has more experience, few such a natural aptitude 

 and fondness for the sport. Lord Worcester, too, like 

 his father, has shown how an educated gentleman, with 

 abilities equal to all exigencies of a high position that 

 affords comparatively little leisure for the mere amuse- 

 ments of life, can excel, in their own profession, men who 

 have been brought up to it from childhood, whose thoughts 

 and energies, winter and summer, morning, noon, and 

 night, are concentrated on the business of the chase. 



This knack of getting to hounds then should we 



