340 NIINIRODS HUNTINCx TOUR 



aiitl Holderness good to the proverb; but, notwithstanding this, I 

 have reason to think stixiifiJU-forward runs are scarce articles in this 

 hmd of sporting. It must, however, be recollected, that the majority 

 of the coverts are whin, and ringing runs generally prevail where 

 they al^ound, which accounts for the ease with which gentlemen 

 now jump upon their second horses in Leicestershire. A fox 

 breaking from a wood has usually time to look about him, steal 

 quietly away, and make his point ; l)ut from a gorse covert he is 

 almost always viewed away, is alarmed, gets blown, and turns short. 



As a sporting county, Yorkshire has no parallel, neither is it 

 possible it ever can have one. In extent (ninety square miles) it 

 is equal to several of the petty German Principalities ; and every man 

 in it — aye, even the Archbishop liimself — is a sportsman. There is 

 not a " boots " at an inn that lias not his guinea on the Leger ; and 

 the manufacturer with his apron, who, in other places, knows no 

 more of a horse than a horse knows of him, will take " foive to 

 one" he names the winner. In short, the horse is the Yorkshire- 

 man's idol ; and had Virgil visited its plains previous to writing 

 his first Georgic, he would have assuredly given it the preference to 

 Epirus. 



During my visit to Kab}', Lord Cleveland told me I missed a 

 treat by not being present at an interview he had with one of his 

 Durham earth-stoppers ; but I will answer for it I should not have 

 understood five words he uttered. Language, however, is the dress 

 of thought ; and there is something very amusing in the native 

 laconism, as Mr. Pope calls it, of these people, when neatly and 

 aptly applied. The following is no bad specimen. The Marquis 

 was changing horses some time since at an inn in his neighbour- 

 hood, when he expressed a wish that no time should be lost, as he 

 was in a hurry. " Drive my Lord iveil, lads," said the landlord ; 

 " but (by a sidewind) mind me — don't overegg V 'pudding." Auglice, 

 "Don't kill my horses." 



The monosyllables cats, iji/lls, and .s7(;//i' often appear in Lord 

 Cleveland's book. " What is a stell? " said I one day to a Durham 

 sportsman. " A stell is a beck," he replied. " What is a beck ? " 

 added I. " A beck is a brook," was the answ'er. " Oh, now I have 

 it," resumed I. 



