160 THE HOESE AXD HIS EIDEE. 



" It's just," said Andrew Fairservice to Frank Osbaldistone, 

 *'amaist as silly as our auld daft laird here and his gomerils o' 

 sons, \vi' his huntsmen and his hounds, and his hunting cattle 

 and horns, riding haill days after a bit beast that winna weigh sax 

 punds when they hae catched it." 



To tlie forecroingf observation it micrht also have been 

 added, that in the extraordinary exertions we have 

 described, the pleasures enjoyed by the *'bit beast" in 

 being hunted, when compared with those of the two or 

 three hundred animals, human, equine, and canine, that 

 are hunting him, are as disproportionate as is his weight 

 when compared to the sum total of theirs. 



" No I " said the haughty Countess of to an aged 



huntsman, who, cap in hand, had humbly invited her 

 ladyship to do him the honour to come and see his 

 hounds, " No I I dislike everything belonging to hunting 

 — it is so crueir 



"Cruel ! ! " replied the old man, with apparent astonish- 

 ment, " why^ my lady^ it can't possibly be cruel, /or," 

 logically holding up three fingers in succession, 

 " We all knows that the gextlemex like it, 

 " And we all knows that the hosses like it, 

 " And we all knows that the houxds like it, 

 " And,'' after a long pause, " none on ics, my lady, 

 can knoiv for certain, that the foxes dont like itJ^ 



It may strongly be suspected, however, that they do 

 not enjoy being hunted to death, and consequently that 



