40 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



the Peninsula, the best, the bravest, the most reckless 

 of exposure to the enemy, the readiest to seek 



" the bubUe reputation, even in the cannon's moutb," 



and the most indifferent to the hardships of a campaign, 

 were amongst the dandies, the most refined and polished 

 of the ladies' men and beaux of the army. This long 

 digression in favour of gentility, brings me back to the 

 point whence I started, with the assertion that a gen- 

 tleman huntsman could hardly fail to excel, if, — and how 

 much depends upon an if ! — if he could dedicate himself 

 entirely to the work, after the manner in which Peter 

 the Great acquired the art of ship-building. As this is 

 by no means desirable, or called- for in any way, it 

 should be your endeavour to select a servant with a 

 turn of mind, a genius, qualifying him for one of the 

 highest grades in his class ; such a man as would, in the 

 army, have risen from the ranks to a sergeant-major, 

 and thence to the top of his profession. He should be 

 impressed with a due sense of the responsibility which 

 must be vested in him, and entertain a corresponding- 

 idea of his own importance, sufficient to ensure the 

 respect and attention to which he is entitled from those 

 under his command, without any affectation or conceit 

 to render him ridiculous. A low-lived blackguard, who 

 will swear like a trooper, and drink himself into a state 

 of madness, constituting his qualification, and his one 

 redeeming point (probably the only merit he will be 

 found to share, in common with other fools), that of 



