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A SLIGHT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



TWO SPORTSMEN OF THE LAST CENTURY. 



Souls attract souls when they're of kindred vein. " 



Love Chase. 



With reference to the nobleness of that which has aptly 

 been termed a " Noble Science," I have been most anxious 

 to offer some sketch of the great Father of Fox-hunting as a 

 gentleman-like pursuit — of the first of all masters of homids — 

 of him who has bequeathed to posterity an undying name — the 

 great Hugo Meynell. 



"Talk of horses, and hounds, and of system of kennel! 

 Give me Leicestershire nags, and the hounds of old Meynell !" 



Such was the song and creed of one who wrote in the days when 

 the veteran still flourished ; and such is the feeling with which 

 his memory is regarded in the present. But it is less for his 

 excellence as a sportsman, than on account of his pre-eminence 

 as a poHshed gentleman, that I have been desirous of adducing 

 his example, in contra-position to that of the mere vermin-killers 

 of previous days, whose habits of life had thrown a stain upon 

 the very name of that which they were incapable either of 

 treating or appreciating as a science. 



