LETTER II. 11 



die of the night ; hunting was riot intended for a labour, 

 but a recreation ;" " Scent is generally better as the day 

 grows older" [query] ; "Sensible hour eleven; plenty 

 of time for breakfast and reading your letters before 

 starting for the covert side ;" and, to crown all, " Foxes 

 more likely to show sport, having had more time to di- 

 gest their supper of last night." There is something in 

 this last remark. What a cowardly crew our grandpapas 

 must have been to disturb poor Mr. Reynolds before he 

 had fully enjoyed his first nap, and so soon after dinner 

 too ! Yet the said Mr. Reynolds, although so uncere- 

 moniously treated, contrived pretty often to show them 

 a light pair of heels, and beat them out of sight and 

 hearing. Then they were such a set of slow coaches in 

 those days, with their pigtails, mahogany boot tops, and 

 garters round their knees ! Not a whit slower, my 

 fashionable friends, than you of the present railroad era, 

 only, as Mr. Weller would say, "they had rayther a 

 different notion of doing things." Foxes were not quite 

 so plentiful, and altogether a different kind of animal — 

 no Piccadillys, or French importations — but in most 

 countries a fine large greyhound fox, long in the body 

 and high on his legs, who was not to be so easily handled 

 as the present mixed and degenerate race. In those 

 days also, there were no large game preserves where 

 foxes could glut themselves with little trouble — they 

 had to travel far in search of food, and sometimes went 

 supperless to their kennels. Scarcity of foxes rendered 

 it necessary to begin early in the morning upon the 

 drag, and instead of riding and mobbing a fox to death, 

 almost as soon as found, our forefathers made the most 

 of him, not being very sure about finding another. The 



