264 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



fox-hunting, will scout a vulpecide as a common enemy. 

 It is needless to dilate upon the advantages to be 

 derived from this pursuit ; they are, and I trust ever 

 will be, so well understood, that whenever it has hap- 

 pened that any efficient establishment has had cause to 

 complain of the want of foxes in one season, its legiti- 

 mate supporters have generally found means to redeem 

 their character in the next. 



Finally, in recommendation of a country life, and of 

 the expediency of encouraging all that tends to the 

 enjoyment of rural occupations, be it remembered that 

 they are far more dependent upon natural, than artifi- 

 cial circumstances ; that any attempt at the destruction, 

 or neglect of the improvement, of the sources of rational 

 and innocent diversion is at variance with the grand pre- 

 cept of " doing as we would be done by," and an abuse 

 of the gifts of Providence. 



" God made the country, and man made the town." 



Each season has its own peculiar charm, it is the work 

 of our own hands that occasions any mixture of gall 

 and wormwood with the milk and honey so bounteously 

 bestowed upon us. 



To the true votaries of the chase, there is much in 

 this chapter which may seem a work of supereroga- 

 tion, but they must remember that it is addressed to 

 all classes of readers, in the humble hope that its circu- 

 lation may not be entirely limited to the descendants 



