THE SPORTING WORLD. 71 



they shall be kept up as a kind of feudal 

 appendage to the estate. If 1 am not mistaken 

 this was the case when Mrs. Gee kept on the 

 old pack, with whom she was, (I believe,) never 

 seen. I also recollect a case where the young 

 heir was compelled to do the same, though he 



d d the beagles, as he contemptuously called 



them, and held their keep and the wages of the 

 huntsman and whip a kind of entailed robbery 

 on the means he wanted for other purposes. 

 I believe he never was in their kennel or showed 

 with them ; he would have held it a dire dis- 

 grace for a man who kept eight hunters in one 

 of our flying counties to do so. 



Now it is by no means impossible that our 

 squire, if he came into his inheritance very 

 young, might have at one time shewn a little 

 of this. Nor, in sooth, should I blame him. 

 I grant the keeping eight hunters at Melton, 

 Rugby or Leamington is a great temptation when 

 put in comparison with a pack of harriers, in 



