CHAPTER X 



SOME AXIOMS AND SAYINGS OF THE CHASE 



•' And you, proud duke, all dressed in blue, 

 A word or two I have for you : 

 Your field's too wild ; your huntsman slack ; 

 In no condition is your pack. 

 The proudest peer in all the land, 

 The science you don't understand ; 

 Then why your thoughts on hunting fox ? 

 You'd better stick to p — 1 — t— s." 



— Sporting Magazine, 1820. 



"The careful man is quite as likely to meet with an 

 accident as the careless;" "the best horses are bred, 

 not in great studs, but on small private farms ; " 

 " Mr. T. C. Garth retired in 1902, after fifty years' 

 mastership of his own hounds." Anthony TroUope 

 wrote most of his novels and acquired most of his 

 hunting knowledge in Essex. " Never give a horse 

 violent exercise immediately after a full meal or a 

 full draught of water." " Some men hunt to ride, 

 some ride to hunt ; others, thank Heaven ! double 

 their fun by doing both" (Brooksby, the Field). 

 This from Nimrod's (Mr. C. ]. Apperley) pen : " He 

 did not suppose he had seen the huntsman of a 

 foxhound pack, mounted on a thoroughbred, a 

 dozen times in all his experience." " Should you 



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