Fox.uuNTiNQ.] FOR MOUNTAIN, FIELD, ANT) FAEM. [Fox-uuatnra. 



ground — I moan that of ladies who dress 

 themselves in a hat and feather, n riding-coat, 

 and a periwit,', or at least tio up tlieir hair in a 

 bag or ribbon, in imitation of the smart part 

 of the opposite sex." And he thus more par- 

 ticularly favours us with a description of one 

 of these anomalous personages : — " His hair, 

 well curled and powdered, hung to a con- 

 siderable length on his shoulders, and was tied, 

 as if bv the hand of his mistress, with a scarlet 

 ribbon, which played like a streamer behind 

 liim ; he had a coat and waistcoat of blue 

 candet, trimmed and embroidered with silver ; 

 a cravat of the finest lace ; and wore, in a smart 

 cock, a little beaver hat, edged with silver, and 

 made more sprightly by a feather. * * * 

 As I was pitying the luxury of this young 

 person, who appeared to me to have been only 

 educated as an object of sight, I perceived, on 

 my nearer approach, and as I turned my eye 

 downward, a part of the equipage I had not 

 observed before, which was a petticoat of the 

 same as the coat and waistcoat." 



The modern huutswoman is not quite so gaily 

 attired; but if she were, she, no doubt, would 

 be in the fashion. Be this as it may, however, 

 the sport of fox-hunting is not now, as it was 

 in former times, restricted to any particular 

 class of men. Although the old Epping Hunt, 

 of venerable antiquity, in virtue of the right 

 of free warren, confirmed to the citizens of 

 Loudon by Henry III., in 1226, has lost its 

 former 'prestige, the lord mayor, aldermen, and 

 corporation no longer proceeding to the hunt 

 in "solemn guise," many wealthy citizens, by 

 the aid of the railways, take their turn with 

 the hounds at the various "meets," within a 

 ie^ hours' distance from town, perhaps once 

 or twice a week, and return to look in at their 

 ofRcea and counting-houses just before the 

 close of business. 



Of course there i:^ now, as, indeed, there 

 always was, a great disparity in the character 

 of the fields, and the ceremonial observed in 

 them. At " provincial" meets the costume is 

 very ad libitum — the farmer, the horsedealer, 

 the barrister, the little country attorney, often 

 turniug out in mufti; whilst the M.P., the 

 city merchant, and the leading men of the 

 county, appear in the legitimate scarlet. Lei- 

 cestershire is the hunting county ;?ar excellence; 

 and Melton Mowbray, the bead-quarters. 



This was, till lately, a prettily situated, inaigni- 

 (icant town; but it is now quickly becoming a 

 sort of metropolis for our fox-hunting aristoc- 

 racy. "The uninitiated readiT," says Nimrod, 

 " would, perhaps, be surpriat-d by an enumera- 

 tion of the persons of rank, wealtli, and 

 fashion, who, during several months of every 

 year, resign the comforts and elegancies of 

 their family mansion, for a small house in soma 

 town or village of Leicestershire — to any, but 

 the eye of a sportsman, nearly the ugliest 

 county in England." The same authority gives 

 us tlie following coup-iVceil of the legitimate 

 Meltonian, which contrasts widely with the 

 miscellaneous lot in a " provincial" hunt ; and 

 as strangely with the bunting gentry of the 

 time of George II., as wo have seen repre- 

 sented in a picture of Mr. Taylor, the artist. 

 " The style of your Meltonian fox-hunter has 

 long distinguished him above his brethren of 

 what he calls the 2^>'ovincial chase. AV^hen 

 turned out of the hands of his valet, he pre- 

 sents the very beau-ideal of his caste. Tbo 

 exact fit of his coat, the superlatively well- 

 cleaned leather breeches, and the generally 

 apparent high breeding of the man, can seldom 

 be matched elsewhere ; and the most cautious 

 sceptic would generally satisfy himself on this 

 fact at a single inspection." 



One more passage from this entertaining 

 writer and thoroughgoing sportsman, drawing 

 the line between the fox- hunter of the eigh- 

 teenth and the nineteenth centuries respec- 

 tively : — " Compared with the luxurious ease 

 with which the modern sportsman is conveyed 

 to the field — either lolling in his chaise and 

 four, or galloping along at the rate of twenty 

 miles an hour on a hundred-guinea hack — the 

 situation of his predecessor was all but dis- 

 tressing. In proportion to the distance be 

 had to ride by starlight, were his hours of rest 

 broken in upon ; and, exclusive of the time 

 which that operation might consume, another 

 serious matter was to be provided for. This 

 was the filling bis hair with powder and 

 pomatum until it could hold no more, and 

 forming it into a well-turned knot, or club, as 

 it was called by bis valet, which was commonly 

 a good hour's work. The protecting mud- 

 boot, the cantering hack, the second horn in 

 the field, were luxuries unknown to him ; and 

 his well-soiled buskins and brown-topped 



415 



