THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 271 



Such has been and will be the case ; but it must be 

 the result of that combination of skill and energy which 

 can adapt itself to the peculiar exigencies of a locality ; 

 thus compensating for deficiencies, and rising superior 

 to obstacles, which, to an inferior genius, might have 

 appeared and proved insurmountable. With this view, 

 I have been desirous of laying before my readers the 

 diagram of a kennel and stables, connected with an 

 establishment, which, in all that constitutes perfection 

 in every department, may challenge comparison with 

 any in the world — situated in a county of no greater 

 pretension, as a hunting country, than that of Hamp- 

 shire, It is true that this unpretending shire, or 

 county of Southampton, can boast no fewer than five 

 packs of foxhounds ; a circumstance which redounds 

 highly to the honour of its inhabitants, considering that 

 there is scarcely a quarter which does not abound in 

 difficulties, rather than in the advantages conducive to 

 success. The menage, which I cite as well worthy the 

 notice of every votary of the Science, appertains to one 

 of no less renown as a sportsman than Thomas Asshe- 

 ton Smith, Esq., of Tedworth. It might savour of 

 fulsome adulation to invest any man with imaginary 

 endowments ; to claim for him the credit of all that 

 partial prejudice might be disposed to accord to him, 

 by placing him only in the reflection of that glass 

 wherein we were ourselves accustomed to behold him. 

 But the incense of flattery will not arise through a plain 

 and simple record of facts. We cannot — 



