NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



exhortation to his brethren of the chase to glean 

 improvement and seek the intercourse of books. 



"Well-bred, polite, 

 Credit thy calling. See how mean, how low, 

 The bookless sauntering youth, proud of the skut 

 That dignifies his cap, his flourish'd belt. 

 And rusty couples jingling by his side, 

 Be thou of other mould." 



It is to be feared that the exhortation was vain. The 

 country gentlemen of that period, although not so 

 boorish as the squires of Charles II. 's time, so well 

 described by Macaulay, could scarcely be called a well- 

 read or a polished race. 



Somervile is credited by tradition with having been 

 more attached to the sport of hare-hunting than any 

 other form of chase. He was, undoubtedly, a keen 

 fox-hunter, but no one who reads the second book of 

 his poem can doubt that he was a devoted harrier man, 

 loving to puzzle out, with patient, well-nosed hounds, 

 every maze and artifice of that most resourceful and 

 cunning of all hunted creatures, the timid hare. He 

 dwells lovingly on every phase of the pursuit, touching, 

 with a master hand, each portion of his subject. First 

 opening with the ways and habits of his quarry, he 

 leads the reader to the advent of the hunting morn. 



" Now golden autumn, from her open lap 

 Her fragrant bounties show'rs ; the fields are shorn : 

 Inwardly smiling, the proud farmer views 

 The rising pyramids that grace his yard, 

 And counts his large increase ; his barns are stor'd 

 And groaning staddles bend beneath their load ; 

 All now is free as air, and the gay pack 

 In the rough bristly stubbles range unblam'd ; 

 No widow's tears o'erflow, no secret curse 

 Swells in the farmer's breast, which his pale lips 

 Trembling conceal, by his fierce landlord aw'd : 

 But courteous now he levels ev'ry fence, 

 Joins in the common cry, and holloas loud. 

 Charmed with the rattling thunder of the field." 



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