THE CHACE. 
the transition to the present elaborate system ; but let 
us wave the tninutice of sporting antiquarianship.* 
In no one instance has the modern varied from the 
ancient system of hunting more than in the hour of 
meeting in the morning. With our forefathers, when 
the roost cock sounded his clarion, they sounded their 
horn ; throwing off the pack so soon as they could 
distinguish a stile from a gate, or, in other words, so 
soon as they could see to ride to the hounds. Then it 
was that the hare was hunted to her form by the trail, 
and the fox to his kennel by the drag. Slow as this 
system would now be deemed, it was a grand treat to 
the real sportsman. What, in the language of the 
chace, is called " the tender-nosed hound," had an 
opportunity of displaying himself to the inexpressible 
delight of his master ; and to the field that is, to the 
sportsmen who joined in the diversion the pleasures of 
the day were enhanced by the moments of anticipation 
produced by the drag. As the scent grew warmer, the 
* In a letter, dated February, 1833, from the late Lord Arundel to the 
author of these papers, is the following interesting passage to sportsmen : 
"A pack of fox-hounds were kept by my ancestor, Lord Arundel, 
between the years 1690 and 1700 ; and I have memoranda to prove that 
they occasionally hunted from Wardover Castle, in Wiltshire, and at 
Brimmer, in Hants, now Sir Edward Halse's, but then the occasional 
residence of Lord Arundel. These hounds were kept by my family until 
about the year 1745, when the sixth Lord Arundel died, when they were 
kept by his nephew, the Earl of Castle- Haven, until the death of the last 
Earl of that name, about the year 1782. The pack were then sold to the 
celebrated Hugo Meynell, Esq., of Quorndon Hall, Leicestershire; and 
hence it is possible they may have, in part, contributed to the establish- 
ment of that gentleman's fox-hunting fame." 
