LETTER XL 



MR. MULLENS AND HIS HARRIERS. 

 A GRICUL TURAL IMPRO VEMENTS.— CONCL USION 



have finished all that I had to say about 

 foxhounds ; but the records of my sporting 

 recollections would be very imperfect, if 

 they contained no mention of my old friend, 

 Mr. Mullens. He first entered me to hare-hunting : he 

 showed me what it ought to be ; and I have since had 

 frequent opportunities of observing what it ought not 

 to be. Hare-hunting is certainly less adapted for well- 

 mounted young men who love hard riding, than it is 

 for middle-aged gentlemen, or boys taking their first 

 lessons in hunting on their ponies ; but it is a very 

 interesting sport if you are satisfied with its peculiar 

 character, and do not spoil it by attempting to make 

 it what it never can be. For though foxhunting is 

 undoubtedly a finer thing, yet you will not improve 

 the former by trying to assimilate it to the latter ; on 

 the contrary, you will, I think, lose the essence of 

 both, and produce a mixture which the taste of the 

 true sportsman rejects. 



The principles on which the two pursuits should 

 be conducted are altogether different. In foxhunting 



