THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 15 



purse, and proportionate sacrifices on his own part, he 

 undertook the management of the hounds, receiving 

 them hterally at a day's notice from Mr. Nunes. He 

 had, from boyhood, followed the chase wherever it was 

 to be followed, through the country where he was born 

 and bred ; not an earth existed, not a woodland or a 

 spinney, with which he was not familiar. As a horse- 

 man, he could cross the most difficult country, as a man 

 should go, who attempts to hunt his hounds ; and, conse- 

 quently, w^ith a pack of hounds and a stable of horses, 

 which he would probably himself now term a scratch 

 concern, to say nothing of his assistants in the field, he 

 contrived to kill foxes and show sport, in a way which 

 has had no parallel, either before or since his time, in 

 those parts. 



This is only one of many instances which I could 

 quote in support of my doctrine, as to the obvious 

 utility of a due acquaintance with a country, and not 

 less especially with the kind of hound best adapted to 

 the soil, and the character of ground over which he is 

 expected to hold a scent. What I may have to say on 

 the subject of hounds will afford matter for my next 

 chapter. I have, in this, dwelt more particularly on 

 these points, from a consideration of the changes in ad- 

 ministration which have taken place around me since 

 last season, and of more which are likely to occur, in 

 the hope that should any one connected with a new ma- 

 nagement have taken up this book, he may have arrived 



