A YEAR OF SPORT 



AND 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



JANUARY. 



FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES. 



BY H. H. S. PEARSE. 



PACE, with all the wild rapture that word conveys, and nothing 

 else, has made midland pastures the favourite hunting-grounds of 

 English men and women who have means to justify and health to 

 enjoy the perfection of pleasure in field sports. None but those 

 who have hunted with the Quorn or Pytchley, the Cottesmore, 

 Billesden, or Belvoir in their best country, when all Melton's 

 bravest and fairest are inspired by keen rivalry, can know what 

 that delight is. The merry men of Lord Eglinton's Hunt will say 

 that their wide stretches of Ayrshire grass lands hold a better 

 scent, that their Foxes are stouter than any to be found in 

 Leicestershire, and that their hounds run as fast ; yet they know 

 no crowds like those that congregate at a fixture near Melton 

 Mowbray or Market Harborough. Followers of the Blackmore Vale 

 have been known to hold very similar views as to the claims of 



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