HARRIERS. 185 



and-ink regulations of chamber legislators and haters of 

 field sports. Three generations of the Pelhams turned 

 thousands of acres of waste in heaths and Wolds into 

 rich farm-land; the fourth did its part by giving the 

 same district railways and seaport communication. 

 When we find learned mole-eyed pedants sneering at 

 fox-hunters, we may call the Brocklesby kennels and the 

 Pelham Pillar as witnesses on the side of the common 

 sense of English field sports. It was hunting that 

 settled the Pelhams in a remote country and led them 

 to colonise a waste. 



There is one excellent custom at the hunting- 

 dinners at Brocklesby Park which we may mention, 

 without being guilty of intrusion on private hospitality. 

 At a certain hour the stud-groom enters and says, " My 

 Lord, the liorses are bedded up ; " then the whole party 

 rise, and make a procession through the stables and 

 return to coffee in the drawing-room. This custom was 

 introduced by the first Lord Yarborough some half-cen- 

 tury ago, in order to break through the habit of late 

 sitting over w^ine that then was too prevalent. 



HARRIERS — ON THE BRIGHTON DOWNS. 



Long before hunting somids are to be heard, except 

 the early morning cub-hunters routing woodlands, and 

 the autumn stag-hunters of Exmoor, harrier packs are 

 hard at work racing down ? and up the steep hill- 

 side and along the chalky valleys of Brighton Downs, 

 preparing old sportsmen for the more earnest work of 

 November — training young ones into the meaning of 

 pace, the habit of riding fast down, and the art of climb- 

 ing quickly, yet not too quickly, up hill— giving consti- 



