394 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



CHAPTER XLVI. 



Winter rural sports — Foxhunting and pheasant shooting — The battue 

 — Commander-in-chief — Non-interference — Exjierienced sports- 

 men of service sometimes — General conduct of the field — Rivalry 

 in horsemanship — Hunting to ride — Spoiling sport — Heads and 

 tails up. 



In the present enlightened age the time of meeting 

 together for the purpose of finding a fox is about 

 one hour before noon, when our forefathers gene- 

 rally returned home for their early dinner, having 

 mounted their horses at cock-crowing, i.e., by the 

 earliest dawn of light, and long before Aurora 

 had risen from her bed in the east. Beckford's 

 opinion on harehunting was, that "if you make 

 a serious business of it, you spoil it/^ Young 

 England appears to entertain a similar opinion in 

 regard to foxhunting. "VVe have become very 

 luxurious in the nineteenth century ; w^e don't like to 

 be put out of our way, or, in other words, subjected 

 to the least inconvenience or trouble when it can be 

 avoided ; and therefore, in obedience to their require- 

 ments, eleven o^ clock has become the fashionable 

 hour, allowing plenty of time to make a good break- 

 fast, glance over our letters, and take a hasty run 

 through the newspaper, before having a run through 

 the country. 



The heaviest time during the winter season is the 

 forenoon, when there is little to be done in the way 



