CEOSSING THE LINE. 



MANY years ago, wheu our entire himtiiig establislament consisted of a rocking- 

 horse, a penny trumpet, and a whip, with which, whenever the notion seized us that 

 it ought to be a himting-day, we contrived to render the house generally noisy and 

 uncomfortable, it was prophesied that railroads must soon put a stop to fox-hunting 

 in I^nglaud. In fact, so dii'e was the animosity of those to whom the care of our j'outh 

 was entrusted, that we, imbibing their ideas, regarded the ii'on horse as nothing less 

 than diabolical, and the chosen iusti'ument that, Mahomet-like, was to sweep all oiu* 

 most cherished institutions and country piu'suits fi-om the face of the earth. Little did 

 we then think what a faithful slave we were reviling, and how this hissing and puffing 

 monster was to be the good genius to inti'oduce us to such happj' hunting-grounds as 

 even Chingagook or Le C'erf Agile never contemplated. 



Wc sinned, and — we are repentant ; but when we fell, like Adam it was in the 

 best of company, for a writer to whose pages we are indebted for no little of om* 

 knowledge concerning the chase, who was one of the first to put sound sporting 

 experience into a readable form, and who had the rare combination (in that day) of 

 being both a scholar and a sportsman, entertained the same views. We have no 

 doubt, like others, he has seen his errors, and not found "the line" such an iusiu-- 

 moiuitable barrier to sport as was at first anticipated. In fact, are not its 

 di'awbacks more than compensated by the facilities it aflbrds both men and horses for 

 reaching any part that may be deemed desii-able ? In the good old days, where a man's 

 house was, there was his hunting, unless at great expense he chose to transport himself 

 and horses by road into more genial localities. This, of course, was constantly done by 

 men with long purses, but where there was one M'ho could thus indulge his taste for 

 sport, there were fifty who could not. But thanks to om- whilom foe, we now one day 

 meet a man -with the Queen's or Mr. Garth's, and then straightway shake him by the 

 hand at Crick Gorse or Six Ilills. Or we may part from a friend amid the sloughs of 

 Lower Woods, and then within a day or two see him negotiating the wide cb-ains of 

 'Holderness. Perhaps real sport may in some instances suffer from the crowds that are 

 enabled to reach a favourite fixture, but, per contra, as the merchants sa}^, hunting is no 

 longer confined to one class or section of the eommunitj-. In fact, it matters little where 

 a man is, if he has time and money he can hunt, and a few hours from his warehouse or 

 office in the city will give him a pleasure denied to his less fortunate predecessors. 

 It is no small advantage to a man with a moderate stud to be able to locate himself in a 

 town, and by means of the rail reach almost daily any pack he may select from 

 half-a-dozen or more. These facilities will doubtless also be increased, and the same 

 privilege be extended to other countries, that now pre^"ails in Yorkshire, of taking one's 

 horse and self out and home at a cheap rate, for hunting pm-poses. And few will deny 

 that a first-class carriage is a more comfortable conveyance, even for a short journey, 

 than a tired horse, who, when fresh, may not be a very pleasant hackney. 



