THE GROOM 117 



Moor, or that Wideopen Common, there is nothing 

 to indicate such regions but the name. Moors, open 

 fields, common lands, &c. are all favourable to hunt- 

 ing, not only as tending to promote the straight- 

 forward progression of the chase, but in preventing 

 the honourable contention of arriving first at big leaps : 

 for it may be observed, that men are never jealous of 

 each other so long as there is no fencing. Our 

 forefathers, therefore, had every chance of being 

 sportsmen ; for, besides having no rivalry or emulation 

 among themselves, the lengths of their runs, with the 

 softness of their steeds, tended to make the riders 

 save them at all points. With the exception, too, 

 of perhaps some half-dozen hunts, Mr. Beckford's, 

 Mr. MeynelFs, Lord Talbot's, Lord Yarborough's, 

 Lord Fitzwilliams's, and a few others, the majority of 

 the packs were either trencher fed, or only kennelled 

 during the winter; a couple, or so, of hounds, 

 perhaps, being kept at the house of each follower, 

 whose attention would be rivetted on his darlings in 

 chase, instead of diverted to the rasping of Thomp- 

 son, or the bruising of Jobson. These hunts were 

 doubtless very popular, for there is nothing so taking 

 as a bustle and stir, in which all are at liberty to 

 share. That is what makes a contested election so 

 popular. Men come out, and fuss, and canvass, and 

 strut, and swagger, who are heard of no more until 

 another contest comes round. There was another 

 characteristic attendant on many hunts in former 

 days, which is almost wholly lost sight of now — 

 namely, hunts that used to hunt hare till Christmas, 

 and fox after. We never hear of such establishments 

 now — at least not avowedly — though there are, 

 doubtless, some that will hunt hare either before or 

 after Christmas ; but there are still those ubiquitous 

 gentlemen, the " oldest inhabitant," whose retentive 

 memories are charged with the miraculous doings of 

 the past — how they dragged up to reynard by daybreak 



