TUDING TO HOUNDS :30r. 



best testify. Without temperance, the fatigue of liuntiug five or six 

 days a week would exhaust the strongest constitution. Hard work, 

 or what we call " severe exercise," wears the human frame by 

 attrition ; l^ut if that attrition be increased by the excitement of 

 drinking and a quick pulse, the machine will be the sooner worn 

 out. Nevertheless, as strong exercise is a preservative against the 

 penalties of liigh feeding, he who takes the greater share of the one 

 may indulge with more impunity in the other. The man, liowever, 

 who wishes to distinguish himself in the field, ami to continue to 

 do so for the best part of his life, must be temperate. The muzzle 

 must now and then be put on himself as well as his horse ; but 

 " non miserc vioit qui -parcc rivit," is a maxim too old and too 

 true to be disputed or doubted. 



Few men have tried the effect of hard work more than myself. 

 For several yeai^s of my life I have had horses with three different 

 packs of hounds — choosing the best fixtures for the day with each. 

 As may be imagined, I have had plenty of road-work, besides 

 hunting ; and, when the weather has been open, my time may be 

 said to have been almost divided between my saddle and my bed. 

 I never knew what it w^as to be fatigued provided 1 lived temperately 

 and went early to rest ; and such a life bade defiance to disease. A 

 very celebrated physician of the last century was in the habit of 

 giving much such a prescription to his patients: "Live," said he, 

 "in a saddle." That riding is the most wholesome of all exercises I 

 have little doubt, for despite of all the vile stuff that finds its road 

 down his throat, who ever heard of a bilious post-boy ! 



To return to my subject. As 



" without a genius, learning soars in vain," 



SO is riding to hounds like the inspiration of the muse. It must in 

 some degree be born with a man, or he will never excel in it. He 

 must possess judgment, temper, coolness, and courage ; and even 

 then, though these good properties may receive their birth with himself, 

 yet they must be perfected by practice and observation. A madman 

 or a coward are equally unfit for the Inisiness ; but under any 

 circumstances, as Humphrey Clinker observes, he must serve an 

 apprenticeship to it. As far, however, as nature is concerned, the 



