84 



so as to give us the best chance of finding ; and if you 

 hear his horn or holloa, you may swear it is gospel. 

 And, as you know, last season, Tom, the second whip, 

 was sacked, at a few minutes' notice, for punishing a 

 hound unnecessarily, and when it was plain that the 

 hound was right and the man wrong. No, no, young- 

 ster, you be contented here ; the grass must have been 

 a perfect elysium for hounds in the old days, when 

 Meynell hunted from the borders of the Pytchley to 

 JSTottingham, and fields were small, and composed of 

 only sportsmen ; but the day is gone, the shires are the 

 fashion, and a reasonable hound, who knows what sport 

 is and hunting ought to be, is better out of a fashionable 

 crowd than in it. 



" Then, look at your country here : plenty of heathy 

 which carries a scent second only — if second at all — to 

 grass ; no game to distract the attention of the young 

 ones, and cause them to ' eat stick ' before they really 

 know what to hunt, chase, and avoid ; and, above all, 

 those magnificent hills and gulleys, which form no 

 impediment to us, but stop those brutes of horses, whose 

 greatest enjoyment, I firmly believe, is to gallop our 

 sterns ofil Think of the glorious bursts we have ' all 

 alone,' while they are toiling and straining under their 

 burdens up the miry, slippery hill-sides, and be thank- 

 ful that there is no chance of your having a broken back 

 because A has determined to be through that bull- 

 finch before B . Then, besides our master, hunts- 

 men, and whips, all of whom are heart and soul in 

 hunting, and think more of our work than their horses' 

 fencing, have we not that glorious old parson J. E-. to 

 help us out of a dead lift when no one else is handy ? 

 and no man in England knows better how to do it. 

 Now, youngster, don't ask any more questions, for I 

 am sleepy." N. 



Baily's Magazine. 



