THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



the account. I would, however, advise you to have more 

 bitches than dogs in your kennel, with a view to future pro- 

 ceedings.' 



We must now bring this tale to an end. Our hero estab- 

 lished himself as a master of foxhounds, in one of the best 

 countries in England, hunting them himself with the greatest 

 satisfaction to his field, and being generally considered one of 

 the most popular of his class. Availing himself of his own 

 experience as a sportsman, and also of the suggestions of 

 those who had long preceded him in his calling, he distin- 

 o-uished himself as a huntsman before tlie closing of his second 

 season, and the fame and reputation of ' Raby's hounds ' 

 filled all the houses and stables in their country. His private 

 character, likewise, was in no less esteem. Observant of all 

 the relations of social life, he gained the approbation of tlie 

 o'ood ; his example went far towards reclaiming the evil pro- 

 pensities of the bad ; and in the narrower sphere of private 

 friendship, society cannot often produce a better specimen of 

 this princely virtue than that exhibited by Frank Raby. That 

 he never entered into the married state may excite surprise, 

 but he had more than once been heard to assign his reasons 

 for remaining single. In the first place, he was unwilling to 

 disturb his excellent mother in the enjoyment of Amstead 

 Abbey as her home, and she lived until he had passed his 

 fortieth year. Secondly, although he acknowledged the truth 

 of the assertion, that the heart of man is like a creeping plant, 

 which withers unless it have something round which it can 

 entwine, he had imbibed the notion, and much that he had 

 seen and heard unfortunately tended to confirm it, that a man 

 devoted, like himself, to the sports of the field, was scarcely 

 fitted for the married state. 



' Not one woman in fifty,' he would say, ' is a suitable wife 

 for such a man, and that one it might not have been my luck 

 to find.' 



Then, although far from being insensible to female charms, 

 he was somewhat mistrustful of the duration of their power; 

 and the following couplet was often on his tongue, when 

 matrimony and its joys became the subject of discourse : 



Love may expire ; tlie gay, the happy (h'eam 

 May turn to scorn, indifierence, or esteem.' 



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