262 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



exhilarating sport of foxhunting, the reunions at 

 the covert side, in place of reunions at certain clubs 

 in London, what would become of half the people 

 who are obliged to winter in the country ? We are 

 now writing of genuine sportsmen, or foxhunters of 

 the old school, who went out hunting for the sake 

 of the hunting ; not of those who adopt this mode 

 of recreation rather from necessity than choice, and 

 some of whom would probably be found administering 

 to themselves certain doses of prussic acid, during 

 the dreary month of November, were not the first 

 of that month inaugurated as the commencement of 

 the foxhunting season, when every man is supposed 

 to be in proper trim himself, and to have his stud of 

 hunters in proper condition to meet the hounds in 

 the field. Temjjora mutaniur et nos mutamur in illis. 

 Foxhunting is the fashion — it is enough, all press 

 into it. 



We are told that when the great Mr. Meynell 

 (and great he certainly was, in more senses than 

 one) first commenced his hunting career in Leices- 

 tershire, without possessing an acre in it, that he 

 was supported by only two subscribers. Lord R. 

 Cavendish and Mr. Boothby. But it is evident 

 from his being called '^ the king of sportsmen,^^ that 

 he had derived that title as a first-rate master of 

 hounds, and moreover he could not have hunted that 

 country as a stranger, had not his conduct as a 

 gentleman ensured him the support and approbation 

 of the whole country. Two lines of the old Coplow 

 hunt song occur to us here, — 



" Talk of horses and hounds, and system of kennel, 



Give me Leicestershire nags, and the hounds of old Meynell." 



