THE PROVINCES. 233 



and breeches, and that is about all there is left for him 

 to learn ! 



In the British army, though more than a hundred 

 regiments constitute the line, each cherishes its own 

 particular title, while applying that general application 

 indiscriminately to the rest. 



I imagine the same illusion affects the provinces, and 

 I should offend an incalculable number of good fellows 

 and good sportsmen, were I to describe as provincial 

 establishments, the variety of hunts, north, south, east, 

 and west, with which I have enjoyed so much good 

 company and good fun. Each has its own claim to 

 distinction, some have collars, all have sport. 



Grass, I imagine, is the one essential that constitutes 

 pre-eminence in a hunting country, and for this the 

 shires have always boasted they bear away the palm, 

 but it will surprise many of my readers to be told that 

 in the south and west there are districts where this 

 desideratum seems now more plentiful than in the 

 middle of England. The Blackmoor Vale still lies 

 almost wholly under pasture, and you may travel to-day 

 forty miles by rail, through the counties of Dorset and 

 Somerset, in general terms nearly from Blandford to 

 Bath, without seeing a ploughed field. 



What a country might here be made by such an 



