062 RIDINC; TO HOUNDS 



so. By getting well away with them, he has not got to catch them, 

 which may be still more against him than even going two or three 

 times up and down a deep ride in a covert. At all events, a sports- 

 man's object is to be with homids ; and it is better to be with them 

 on a horse half beaten, than to be riding about the country asking 

 the old question, " Did you see the hounds?" on a fresh one. 



The following anecdote is in point. A gentleman of large fortune, 

 well known in Staffordshire, was out with the late Mr. Meynell 

 when he hunted Leicestershire, and in those days was going " with 

 high and vent'rous sail." Coming to a river which had much over- 

 flowed its banks, he pulled oft' his coat and waistcoat, and swam for 

 a considerable distance. The first man who got around by a bridge 

 was Lord Forester, who, getting on the line of them, asked a 

 countryman whether he saw the hounds. " Oh yes," said the 

 fellow, "I seed 'em — Init you will never see 'em no more; they 

 have been gone this quarter of an hour." " Who was with them ?" 

 said his Lordship. "No one but the v/i/Z/cr," was the reply, "and 



he was riding most nation hard, tn lie sure.'' This was Mr. G 



in his shirt. 



Had hunting and the present spirited manner of riding to hounds 

 been practised as we practise them in earlier times, 1 cannot help 

 thinking that they would have formed a fine subject for a pastoral 

 or an epic poem, in the hands of Theocritus or Virgil, when dressed 

 in the lustre of their language, and adorned with their " living 

 words." Such a poem would have been read with unmingled 

 feelings of delight. The twang of the horn, the echo of the woods, 

 the cry of the hounds, the cheers of the huntsmen, and the ai'doiu' 

 of the riders, would not have been interrupted by the recollections 

 of countries wasted by want, or cities depopulated by the sword. 

 What a contrast would the cheerful and happy scenes of the sports- 

 man present to the blood-stained career of the hero ! As Bellona is 

 represented by the poets in language too horrible to I'ead, Diana, 

 though bent on the pleasures of the chase, is painted with all the 

 attractions of her sex, and in the elegant simplicity of nature. The 

 epithets applied to this sporting goddess are said to be tlie happiest 

 in the Latin language. 



Althougli we have l)ul an imperfect idea of the manner in which 



