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A SLIGHT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



TWO SPOETSMEN OF THE LAST CENTURY. 



" Souls attract souls when they're of kindred vein." 



Love Chase. 



With reference to the nobleness of that which has aptly- 

 been termed a " Noble Science," I have been most anxious to 

 offer some sketch of the great Father of Fox-hunting as a gen- 

 tleman-like pursuit— of the first of all masters of hounds — of 

 him who has bequeathed to posterity an undying name — the 

 great Hugo Meynell. 



" Talk of horses, and hounds, and of system of kennel ! 

 Give me Leicestershire nags, and the hounds of old Meynell !" 



Such was the song and creed of one who wrote in the days 

 when the veteran still flourished ; and such is the feeling with 

 which his memory is regarded in the present. But it is less 

 for his excellence as a sportsman, than on account of his pre- 

 eminence as a polished gentleman, that I have been desirous 

 of adducing his example, in contra-position to that of the mere 

 vermin-killers of previous days, whose habits of life had thrown 

 a stain upon the very name of that which they were incapable 

 either of treating or appreciating as a science. 



