90 UNASKED ADVICE. 



country in tlie course of a season ? Can sucli a perform- 

 ance be expected of a turned-down animal, fed with 

 rabbits half through the summer, and who has never had 

 occasion to go more than two miles from home for 

 refreshment or dissipation ? 



The hounds, too ; but here, if a friend be present, we 

 are interrupted — " They, at all events, have improved/^ 

 To which we make answer that we are not quite so sure 

 of that. In looks, no doubt; this, indeed, is almost 

 overdone. Are perfectly straight forelegs the best for 

 years of hard work ? Do they never show the work by 

 standing over, like a groggy horse ? Is not muteness a 

 fault ? and is it uncommon ? and do the hounds of the 

 present day puzzle out a bad scent like those of our fore- 

 fathers ? Here we are corrected again — " No one wants 

 them to.^' But still a long slow-hunting run on a bad 

 scenting day is at least as good fun, even to the hard 

 men, as three or four scurries of three fields each after 

 different foxes ; and with a good scent all hounds go fast 

 enough. And the process of agriculture is unfavourable 

 to hunting. They talk of a reaction in the matter of 

 arable land, and of grass being laid down, and we hope 

 it may be so ; but the effect of draining is seen in the 

 whirlwinds of March dust, which make hunting in that 

 month usually a delusion and a snare. Well, at all events 

 hunting has been improved for ladies, if not for men. 

 The invention of the third pummel is one of the most 

 useful of modern days, and though a horse may roll over 

 his fair burden he cannot possibly drag her by her 

 stirrup, if she be provided with the admirable safety 

 stirrup of Mr. Davis, nor with a third pummel can he 

 dislodge her from the saddle. As far as men are con- 

 cerned, however, we appear to have demonstrated that 



