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CHAPTER XIX. 



liARE-HUNTING — FOX-HUNTING— STAG-HUNTING. 



Hare-hunting — The Best Introduction to Fox-hunting — What it Teaches the Young Sportsman — The Arts of the Sports- 

 man — And of the Horseman — An Excellent Apprenticeship for the Young — And for the Old — Anecdote of an Old 

 Baronet — Peter BecUford's "Thoughts on Hunting" — -Analysis of Ninety-eight Packs — Hallamshire Heavy Harriers — 

 Trencher Fed^ Welsh Hounds — Devon Hare-hounds — Three D fferent Kinds of Country — The Horse for Hare-Hunting 

 — A Parson's Celebrated Pack — Fox-Hunting — Song, "The Galloping Squire" — Charles Fox's Pleasures — The Hunting 

 Map of England — Its Extent — Its Variety — Hugo Meynell, the Founder of the Quorn Hunt — The "Flying Childe" 

 Hard Riding — George Morland's Hunting Pictures— " Each Nag Wore a Crupper, each Squire a Pigtail" — Ralph 

 Lambton — A Refined Country Gentleman — Lord Sefton, an Epicurean, Introduced the Second Horse System — The 

 Paradise of Fox-hunters — A Ride Round Melton— Oilier Counties — The Rule for tlie Learner in Fox-Hunting — Stag- 

 Hunting — In Feudal Times — Temp. George III. — The Present Royal Buck-hounds — Date from 1813 — Pure Fox-hounds 

 — Of Large Size — The Royal Huntsman, Charles Davis — Earl Granville's Opinion of — Royal Deer — How Bred — Trained 

 — Caught — Carted to Meets — The Earl of Derby's Stag-hounds — Their Successes — The Surrey — Baron Rothschild's and 

 the Vale of Aylesbury — Whyte Melville's "Lord of the Valley" — The Petre Stag-hounds, Essex— The late Charles 

 Buxton — His Stag-hunting Ballad, " Forrard Away" — The Black St. Hubert Blood-hounds — Lord Wolverton — 

 Mr. Roden— Wild Stag-Hunting in the West — Sketch of, by a Q.C. — Note on Octogenarian Parson Sportsman — The 

 Drag Hunt. 



Differing from very high authorities, I consider tliat the young horseman, not bred to 

 field sports, not familiar with the etiquette of the huntiiig-iield (which in its way is quite 

 as important for success in society as the etiquette of the drawing and dining room), after 

 he has mastered the management of his horse, will do best by commencing his career as 

 a sportsman with hare-hounds. He will learn, amongst other useful lessons, to understand 

 the important part that the pack plays in the performance ; that hare-hounds are expected 

 to do their own work, without the assistance of " views " from the field ; that they are 

 never on any excuse to be overriden. He will also learn the autocratic position of the 

 huntsman, the importance of silence, and the impertinence of any interference with the hounds. 



With fox-hounds in a flying country, a plucky young fellow, ignorant of the first 

 rudiments of the art of hunting, following the bad example of men who ought to know 

 better, may, with a good start and a good horse, make and keep a place in the very 

 first flight, with half the pack behind him, on his very first appearance on the hunting- 

 field, and from that time forward consider himself to have taken a first-class degree in a 

 science which requires a good deal of experience, at least to pursue it like a sportsman 

 and a gentleman. 



In hare-hunting the hare goes first, the hounds always next, then the huntsman, and 

 lastly the Field. 



There is another advantage in hare-hunting as a preliminary education for the nobler 

 pursuit. As a general rule the chase is deliberate ; the competition for a place in the front 

 being less keen, the novice has time to watch the example and to listen to the sage 

 precepts of the mentors of the hunt, amongst whom, if it is an established pack, some fine 



