306 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



At the request of a friend, who wished me to give 

 him some information on hare-hunting as well as fox- 

 hunting, I purpose making a short digression to answer 

 his enquiries upon this subject, as far as I feel competent 

 to do so ; but I must premise that, although I served an 

 apprenticeship to thistle-whipping under the best master 

 of harriers in his day, I never was a genuine hare-hunter 

 at heart ; but — de gustibus non disputandum — every man 

 has his own peculiar hobby, and, at any rate, hare- 

 hunting ranks a long way before calf-hunting ; one is 

 sport in its legitimate sense, the other is not. Beckford 

 remarks, that if you make a serious business of hare- 

 hunting, you spoil it. The same observation may hold 

 good with regard to fox-hunting, or any other hunting. 

 To make a serious business of what is intended only as a 

 recreation or amusement, defeats its primary object. To 

 affirm that every man who goes out hunting has no other 

 end in view but a day's pleasurable amusement, would 

 be not exactly correct. Some go for one reason, some 

 for another, and some for no reason at all, except to kill 

 time ; but a real sportsman goes out to enjoy himself. 

 The prospect of a day's hunting puts him in high and 

 buoyant spirits, and, when mounted on his hunter, he 

 leaves dull care behind him, not sitting behind hi^ saddle, 

 as it is said — atra cura sedit post equitem — but sitting 

 in any other position dull care may fancy, in a ditch by 

 the road side, or, perhaps, at home in his arm chair. 



On a fine hunting morning we feel above all the 

 cares and troubles of life, and not only in charity, but in 

 good humour with everyone and everything around us ; 

 in short, hunting is anything and everything but a serious 

 business to the real lover of the sport. Fox-hunting and 



