316 APPENDIX. 



death of the fox, it had been more trampled upon than in any 

 other part. 



" This and the preceding anecdote I call ' confirmation strong 

 as proof of holy writ ;' and, with all this before me, I cannot but 

 call querulous farmers in general an infatuated race, blind alike 

 to common sense and their own interests. 



" I should not have been thus prolix upon the subject — all 

 that I have said tending only farther to establish a fact already- 

 notorious — but that I am quite sick of the cry, ' Ware wheat !' 

 which is dinned into the ears of all who have not the good for- 

 tune to hunt in a grazing county. I am too apt, upon these 

 occasions, to exclaim with the favourite poet of the most classical 

 of your correspondents — 



' O fortunati nimium, sua si bona norint, 

 Agricoke.' 



" I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



" A Sportsman." 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER, 



(^Referred to at page 26,) 



Which was received, in 1832, from a gentleman who, under the 

 signature of " Thistle Whipper," has given abundant proof to the 

 readers of the Sporting Magazine, of the value of that opinion 

 which I had sought, in confirmation of my own, as to the best of 

 hunting dogs : — 



" If, after forty years' experience, I may offer an opinion 

 upon the kind of hound you have selected, I should say, most 

 decidedly, yovi are right. I have hunted hare with every descrip- 

 tion of hound, from the lap-dog beagle to the twenty-six inch 

 southern hound, and have no hesitation in saying, — that no hound 

 living will hunt lower scent than a foxhound, if let alone." 



[Lord Tavistock, himself originally a master of harriers, 

 expressed himself to the same effect ; but this, from the veteran 

 to whom I allude, was still stronger ; considering that, at the 

 same time, he was endeavouring to procure beagles, or southern 

 hounds, having, as he proceeds in the same letter to say, " had 

 riding enough, requiring less pace, and being desirous of gratify- 

 ing the ear as well as the eye."] 



