SCENT AND WEATHER 245 



results of the season 1852-3. Never was the land more 

 completely saturated or the sport throughout the 

 kingdom more generally good. 



A singular fact connected with this season is worthy 

 of notice. Although an abundance of sport had been 

 shown, far exceeding the average, with nearly every 

 pack of fox-hounds throughout the kingdom, and every 

 country had been unusually deep and severe for horses, 

 besides that the assemblages of sportsmen at the 

 covert-side had exceeded those of any preceding year, 

 yet accidents to men or horses were very rare. Doubt- 

 less there were some fatal to the equine race which 

 have not gained publicity ; but I believe none of serious 

 consequence happened to their riders. To what cause 

 or causes this good fortune may be attributed I am not 

 prepared to state; probably to a combination of 

 causes. Mother Earth was never in a more tender 

 mood to receive into her affectionate embraces her 

 numerous family of venatic sons ambitiously wooing 

 the fates in the enterprising vicissitudes of the 

 chase. The accomplishment of riding is more generally 

 practised and understood ; for it usually happens that 

 the most unsophisticated 'muffs ' are the most likely to 

 meet with accidents. 



There is another circumstance which although not 

 exactly connected with scent is very intimately con- 

 nected with the sport, that is riding to hounds. In the 

 early days of fox-hunting — that is in the time of 

 Meynell and Corbet — hard-riding, jealous m_en were 

 not numerous, since which they have increased to an 

 extraordinary degree. How many foxes have escaped, 

 how many good runs have been lost from this cause 

 alone ! I do not insert these remarks with a view to 

 suppress that general ardour and enthusiasm which 

 assist in making fox-hunting the noblest and most 

 distinguished of our national amusements ; quite the 

 reverse. My motive is to offer such hints to the un- 

 initiated that they may be able to gain enviable dis- 

 tinction, which they cannot do if they destroy that 



