RIDING OVER WHEAT. 315 



riding over wheat. My apology for trespassing upon your columns 

 is, that I flatter myself they apply to the subject, and are what 

 the lawyers would call ' cases in point.' 



" I am informed, upon the indisputable authority of an inti- 

 mate friend, who was well acquainted with the late Lord Y — b— h, 

 that his Lordship was in the constant habit of making compen- 

 sation to all the farmers of the country over which he hunted, 

 who could lay claim for any injury done to their crops. After a 

 very wet season, he sent for one farmer in particular, the pro- 

 prietor of a field by the side of a favourite covert, to which, owing 

 to the scarcity of foxes in other parts of the hunt, they had been 

 obliged to have constant recourse. At the end of the season this 

 field was literally destroyed, to all appearance — not a vestige of 

 a blade of wheat being visible, and the soil in every part resem- 

 bling that of a muddy lane. — ' I have sent for you,' said Lord 

 Y — b — h to the farmer, ' to offer you the fair value of the 

 wheat field, which was so trampled upon last season, that I fear 

 you must have been wholly disappointed of your harvest.' — ' On 

 no account, my lord (replied this true specimen of an English 

 farmer), — upon no account can I consent to take a farthing of 

 remuneration. So far from the disappointment, for which I was 

 prepared, never in any previous year have I had so good a crop 

 as has been reaped this harvest in that very field, which, at the 

 close of hunting, looked truly unpromising enough.' 



" To this I shall add but one more, from the numberless 

 instances which I could quote from my own observation. I was 

 expressing my opinion upon this topic very lately to Lord G — e, 

 and was rejoiced to find one so competent to judge of agricul- 

 tural matters thoroughly agreeing with me. He assured me that, 

 on his estate in Sussex, he had a field, last season, sown with a 

 peculiar sort of wheat, remarkable for its tenderness, and on that 

 account he had endeavoured to preserve it. Owing, however, to 

 chance, he found this impossible. The hounds ran frequently 

 over it, and, upon one occasion, killed their fox in the centre 

 (near a bush which enabled him to mark the spot), followed, of 

 course, by every horse within reach of the scene. To his sur- 

 prise, the crop very much exceeded his utmost expectations, and 

 was thicker and finer on and around the spot where, by the 



