12 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



field, will have half the excitement, the exultation, the 

 delight, which he will find in this joyous result of all 

 his hopes and endeavours ? 



To retui-n to my position, that with the best esta- 

 blishments which money can produce, a man may fail 

 — may fail in showing that sport which will stamp the 

 character of his pack; — for justice, blind justice, is very 

 blind indeed in this respect, and will take success as 

 the sole criterion of merit. I have said that it is not 

 enouofh to brino^ into the field men, hounds, and horses, 

 of the best pretensions ; I repeat, that it is not enough, 

 unless all are pre-eminently qualified for the particular 

 country in which their lot may be cast ; unless the ser- 

 vants possess, in addition to every professional quali- 

 fication, that intimate knowledge of all localities which 

 is indispensable, and not less so to the master, if he 

 assume, as he should do, the absolute command ; unless 

 much, very much, have been done in the time of pre- 

 paration which cannot be done during the season, which 

 is as the harvest of the months of promise which have 

 preceded it. As one striking instance, in support of 

 what I have thus advanced, and drawing, as will be my 

 invariable rule, solely upon f^icts within my own ex- 

 perience, it will be fresh in the memory of all Hamp- 

 shire gentlemen, that when the great Mr. Osbaldeston 

 ■ — (and great he certainly and deservedly was, and ever 

 must be held, as a master of hounds) — temporarily re- 

 moved his splendid establishment from Leicestershire 

 into the Hambledon country, with the aid of no less a 



