184 FOX-HOUNDS. 



rode to. The scarcity of villages, the general sparseness 

 of the population, the few roads, and those almost all turf- 

 bordered, and on a level with the fields, the great size of 

 the enclosures, the prevalence of light arable land, the 

 nuisance of flocks of sheep, and yet a good scenting 

 country, are the special features of the Wolds. When 

 you leave them and descend, there is a country of water, 

 drains, and deep ditches, that require a real water- 

 jumper. Two points specially strike a stranger — the 

 complete hereditary air of the pack, and the attendants, 

 so different from the piebald, new-varnished appearance 

 of fashionable subscription packs. Although Smith, the 

 huntsman, is fourth in descent of a line of professional 

 sportsmen, Robinson, the head groom, had just com- 

 pleted his half centuiy of service at Brocklesby; and 

 Barnetby, who rode Lord Yarborough's second horse, 

 was many years in the same capacity with the first Earl. 

 But, after all, the Brocklesby tenants — the Nainbys, the 

 Brookes, the Skipwiths, and other Woldsmen, names 

 " whom to mention would take up too much room," as the 

 " Eton Grammar " says— tenants who, from generation 

 to generation, have lived, and flourished, and hunted 

 under the Pelham family — a spirited, intelligent, hospi- 

 table race of men — these alone are worth travelling from 

 Land's End to see, to hear, to dine with ; tojlearn from 

 their sayings and doings what a wise, liberal, resident 

 landlord — a lover of field sports, a promoter of improved 

 agriculture — can do in the course of generations toward 

 " breeding" a first-class tenantry, and feeding thousands 

 of townsfolk from acres that a hundred years ago only 

 fed rabbits. We should recommend those M.P.'s who 

 think fox-hunting folly, to leave their books and debates 

 for a day's hunting on the Wolds. We think it will be 

 hard to obtain such happy results from the mere pen- 



