THE PROVINCES. 221 



in those remote regions which they contemptuously 

 term the provinces. 



There never was a greater fallacy. If we calculate 

 the number of hours hounds are out of kennel (for we 

 must remember that the Quorn and Belvoir put two 

 days into one), we shall find, I think, that they run hard 

 for fewer minutes, in proportion, across the fashionable 

 countries than in apparently less-favoured districts con- 

 cealed at sundry out-of-the-way corners of the kingdom. 



Nor is this disparity difficult to understand. Fox- 

 hunting at its best is a wild sport ; the wilder the better. 

 Where coverts are many miles apart, where the animal 

 must travel for its food, where agriculture is conducted 

 on primitive principles that do not necessitate the hunts- 

 man's horror, "a man in every field," the fox retains all 

 his savage nature, and is prepared to run any distance, 

 face every obstacle, rather than succumb to his relentless 

 enemy, the hound. He has need, and he seems to 

 know it, of all his courage and all his sagacity, as com- 

 pelled to fight alone on his own behalf, without assistance 

 from that invaluable ally, the crowd. 



A score of hard riders, nineteen of whom are jealous, 

 and the twentieth determined not to be beat, forced 

 on by a hundred comrades all eager for the view and 

 its stentorian proclamation, may well save the life of 



