EFFECTS CAUSED BY THE SIGHT OF HOUNDS. 159 



forming a dense mass of panting wool, on whicli no blow 

 from a hunting-whip or from a hedge- stake produces 

 the slightest effect ; and thus the whole field of gentle- 

 men sportsmen, to their utter disgust, are completely 

 stopped. " I had no idea,'^ lisps a very young hard-riding 

 dandy, in as feminine and drawling a voice as he can 

 concoct, ^^ I really hadn't the slightest idea^ before^ that 



sheep were such fools ! " But their offspring are, 



in their generation, no wiser. A poor little lamb, almost 

 just born, the instant it sees the hounds, will not only 

 leave its mother to follow them, but under the legs of 

 a crowd of horses — that if they can possibly avoid it 

 will never tread upon it — canters along, until, its w^eak 

 knees and lungs failing, it reels, and is left lying on its 

 side, apparently dead. 



Cruelty of Hunting considered. 



Over the closed eyes, panting flank, and exhausted 

 frame of this tiny, innocent, and yet seduced orphan, who 

 had never known its father, and has just lost its mother, 

 we will venture to offer to our readers a very lew remarks 

 on the strange dissolving view that has just vanished, or 

 rather galloped, from their sight. 



