50 THE HUNTING FIELD 



Freeman." " Fiddling, fiddling," replied Luke; "it's 

 all very well for cripples, poor things ! I always give 

 them a halfpenny when I sees them at the fairs." 

 Beckford has a cut at the musicians also. "Louis 

 the Fifteenth," writes he, "was so passionately fond 

 of hunting that it occupied him entirely. The then 

 King of Prussia, who never hunted, gave up a great 

 deal of his time to music, and himself played on the 

 flute. A German meeting a Frenchman, asked him, 

 very impertinently, ' St son maitre chassoit toujours ? ' 

 ' Out, oui,'' replied the other, '// ne joue Jamais de la 

 flute: " 



A Huntsman's head generally runs upon hunting. 

 If he rides, or rails through a country, he looks at it 

 with reference to riding over it. If he examines the 

 crops, it is merely to see when they will be ripe. 

 Woodland scenery draws forth observations upon cub- 

 hunting. Hills are looked at with an eye to the 

 easiest way up. When Williamson, the Duke of 

 Buccleuch's Huntsman, visited London, his Grace 

 told him he must see the sights. " But," replied Wool, 

 as they call him, though he is no relation of our friend 

 Cottonwool, " I don't know the country, and shall be 

 lost." His Grace then sent him out on horseback, 

 with a groom after him, and Nimrod says Wool was 

 taken for a newly-made lord. Talking of countries 

 reminds us of a story they used to tell of the late 

 Lord Spencer, when Lord Althorp, and Dick Knight, 

 his Huntsman. His lordship had been talking at 

 the meet to some gentlemen about political matters, 

 and had made use of the old hack observation that 

 the "country was ruined" 



"Ah," said Dick Knight, with a sigh, ^^ they ruined 

 the country when they made the Oxford Canal." 



It is singular that such a narrow strip of water 

 as the British Channel should make such a perfect 

 division between the tastes, the feelings, and inclina- 

 tions of the people. What would be prized and 



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