TUE IIUNTEK.'J 



MODEEN VETEEINAEY PRACTICE. 



[the huntee. 



came tlie fox-devil ; lie poiutiug with a crooked 

 stick to a clump of date-trees ; there he came 

 at a great rate. I hallooed, but nobody heard 

 me, and I thouglit he must get away ; but, 

 when he got quite out of sight, up came a 

 large spotted dog, and then another, and 

 another. They all had their noses to the 

 ground, and gave tongue — whow, whow, whow 

 — I was friglitened. Away went these devils, 

 who soon found the poor animal. After them 

 galloped the Foringees (a corruption of Frank, 

 the name given to a European over all Asia), 

 shouting and trying to make a noise louder 

 than the dogs. No wonder they killed the fox 

 among them.' " 



The following is related by a Wiltshire 

 gentleman, who was an eye-witness of the 

 scene he describes : — " I lent a fine and fiery 

 mare to a friend from town, who had come 

 down to try his Essex dogs against our Wilt- 

 shire breed : at the close of a very fine day's 

 sport, we had to beat a small furze-brake, and, 

 for the purpose of better threading it, my 

 friend dismounted and gave the bridle of the 

 mare to the next horseman. Puss was soon 

 started ; the " halloo" was given ; the person 

 who held my mare, in the eagerness of sporty 

 forgot his charge, loosed his hold, and, regard- 

 less of any other than his own steed, left mine 

 to run, like Mazeppa's, " wild and untutored." 

 But, to the astonishment of all, instead of so 

 doing, or even attempting to bend her course 

 homewards (and she was in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of her stable), she ran the 

 whole course at the tail of the dogs ; turned, 

 as well as she could, when they brought the 

 prey about, and afterwards by very much out- 

 stripping all competitors (for the run was long 

 and sharp), she stopped only at the death of 

 the hare, and then suflTered herself to be quietly 

 regained and remounted. This I conceive to 

 be certainly an extraordinary proof of a natural 

 love for the sport ; but what renders it more 

 remarkable is, that I had only attempted to 

 ride her twice before, after any hounds what- 

 ever. The brace of dogs that were slipped at 

 this course were my own, and the groom had 

 been in the habit of exercising them with the 

 mare. Whether this had any efiect on her 

 actions I am not competent to give an opinion," 

 The passion of horses for hunting was, on 

 one occasion, exemplified in a most extraor- 



dinary manner. Three of the horses of the 

 Brighton coach chanced to have finished their 

 stage, and to have been standing, unharnessed, 

 at the instant Lord Derby's stag-hounds 

 passed in full cry. They started off and 

 joined the hunt, and had the gratification of a 

 run of some length, until the hounds were 

 whipped ofi". Even after this, they followed 

 the stag till they got up to his haunches, and 

 then chased him three miles on the high road, 

 when the stag taking a high fence, left them 

 snorting on the wrong side, to be secured by 

 those in quest of them. 



This deer was more fortunate than one 

 which was hunted by the same pack, as the 

 result will show. Some years since, the Earl 

 of Derby turned out from the Oaks a noble 

 deer, for a day's sport, which, after having 

 traced a very long tract of country, entered 

 the grounds of the late Mrs. Smith, of Ashted, 

 near Epsom, Surrey, and being closely pur- 

 sued by the hounds, it actually leaped through 

 the drawing-room window, the sash of which 

 was down, followed by the pack in full cry. 

 The consternation occasioned in the family, by 

 this strange event, was indescribable. At 

 that critical moment no one was in the apart- 

 ment, some ladies having quitted it a few 

 minutes previously. The window was almost 

 dashed to atoms, and every part of the room, 

 with its rich carpet and corresponding furni- 

 ture, covered with blood and dirt. The animal 

 was soon dispatched by the ferocity of the 

 dogs ; and perhaps so curious an event is not 

 to be found in the annals of sporting. As a 

 companion, however, to this scene, a stag, gra- 

 duating towards the city of Oxford, at length 

 took to one of the streets, through which he 

 was followed by the hounds in full cry, into a 

 chapel, and there killed, during divine service. 

 A horse that had, a short time before, been 

 severely fired on three legs, and was placed in 

 a loose box, with the door, four feet high, 

 closed, and an aperture over it little more than 

 three feet square, and standing himself nearly 

 sixteen hands, and master of fifteen stone, 

 hearing the cheering of the huntsmen and the 

 cry of the dogs at no great distance, sprung 

 through the aperture, without leaving a single 

 mark on the bottom, the top, or the sides. 



If the horse, then, be thus ready to exert 

 himself for our pleasure— and pleasure alone 



8D 



