The Packs of Hounds in England. 393 



Hard riding is a matter of health and age as well as means. Not unfrequently the 

 fox-hunter who in his golden youth was one of the bright particular stars of the Quorn, 

 the Belvoir, or the Cottesmere, is found at fifty settled within reach of a provincial pack, 

 in a district where arable fields and frequent woodlands make brilliant bursts impossible, 

 pursuing his old sport with as much pleasure as ever, with a stud of two or three useful 

 animals, whose necks for nine months of the year are not unacquainted with the harness 

 collar. 



Besides the sportsman pure and simple, to whom hunting is the principal business of the 

 winter season, and the chief subject of conversation and preparation for the year, there are 

 (and this is peculiar to this country) a vast number of born sportsmen whose occupations 

 and \\-hose means only allow them to liunt at intervals — one day a week or three days a 

 month — with the nearest pack, be it fox-hounds, harriers, or stag-hounds. In truly rural 

 districts these include farmers on their market horses or on young hunters learning their 

 business.; military and naval officers retired to the economic dulness of the country; a few 

 parsons* (their number and wholesome influence on the hunting-field is rapidly diminishing) ; 

 a doctor or two, who persuade themselves, with more or less reason, that they make patients 

 in the field ; lawyers, with the same excuse and with more success ; veterinary surgeons 

 with young horses to sell ; and, particularly in Wales, the thriving, hard-riding shopkeeper, 

 the capitalist of the village. If it is in Devonshire, Somersetshire, or the hilly districts of 

 Wales, the blacksmith, the miller, every small farmer, and, in fact, every one who owns a 

 pony and can spare an hour, follows the hounds. 



In the neighbourhood of great manufacturing or seaport towns, "The Field," as the 



assembly is technically termed, is still more miscellaneous. At many a gateway the old 



county squire is obliged to rub knees on one side with a cotton-spinner and on the other 



with a fishmonger, while scores of young fellows, well horsed and correctly equipped, whose 



fathers worked for weekly wages, are to be found in the first flight. In the neighbourhood 



of London, the retail tradesmen who hunt in the most expensive form are sufficient in 



number to fill a special train and form a sort of club. 



English hunting is divided into — 



Fox-hunting, 



Stag-hunting, 



Hare-hunting. 



"The Field Rural Almanack" for 1878 gave the particulars of one hundred and thirty- 

 seven packs of fox-hounds in England and Wales, of thirteen packs of stag- hounds, and of 

 ninety-two packs of hare-hounds ; eight packs of fox-hounds in Scotland ; in Ireland eighteen 

 packs of fox-hounds, four packs of stag-hounds, and forty-four packs of harriers. 



Out of the forty counties into which England is divided — or rather, forty-three, if the 

 three Ridings of Yorkshire are counted as three counties— there are only three in which there 

 are no recognised packs of fox-hounds — that is to say, in Westmoreland, Middlesex, and 

 Lancashire. Middlesex has the benefit of the Royal Buckhounds. 



* The late Bisliop Wilberforce objected to hunting— which is not an ecclesiastical offence. Soon after he was appointed to 



the diocese of Oxford he observed, in a reproachful tone, to a hard-riding rector, " You hunt a good deal, I believe, Mr. B ; 



do you think it quite a clerical pursuit?" "Well, my lord, I don't think it worse than going to balls."' "Ah!" replied the 

 bishop, " you allude to my being at Lady Jersey's ball ; but I beg to assure you that I never was in the ball-room." " My lord," 

 answered the parson, " that's just my case; I go out with the hounds certainly, but wh.en they are running I am never in the same 

 field with them." The parson hunted to the day of his death, and was even chaii mnn of the hunt committee. He wni an excellent 

 parish priest, and a jjopular magistrate with the labouring classes. 

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