SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 391 



unsatisfactory and exceedingly disgusting to the 

 foxhunting community. Every genuine sportsman 

 will allow that there are days, and many throughout 

 the season, when hounds would be far better lying 

 upon their benches iu the lodging-house at home 

 than disturbing coverts from which no sport could 

 reasonably be expected. Moreover, the hunting 

 fixture in his time was not attended, as now, by a 

 large concourse of men on horseback, who had sent 

 on their hunters many miles by road or railway to 

 be present at the gathering, and had set apart that 

 day for recreation from business, or from a real love 

 of hunting; so to either of these, although from 

 different causes, the non-appearance of the hounds 

 could not fail to produce great disappointment, and 

 something more. To be told by a whipper-in, with the 

 master's compliments, " that the hounds would be 

 there next morning if favourable,^' seemed only 

 adding insult to injury. 



Men who have nothing to do at home, and others 

 so exceedingly fond of hunting that nothing could 

 keep them at home, when there is a chance of 

 meeting hounds, will go out in every kind of weather 

 in the hope of finding, if not a fox, a cure for that 

 atra cur a quae sedit post equitem, to kill time — save 

 the mark ! — which, to those who know not rightly its 

 value, passes heavily and slowly along, like the car 

 of Juggernaut, crushing numbers by its weight ; 

 yet to others, who count the minutes as they fl\^ as 

 the most precious moments of their lives which 

 they can only call their own, every hour to them 

 has its allotted work. 



