364 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



his means to gratify ; but, had anybody imagined that the 

 gratification of that wish, and the life of his excellent 

 lather, bore the most distant approach to an equality in 

 his well-balanced mind, he would have found himself 

 egregiously mistaken. However, the one thing having 

 been snatched away from him was no reason why he 

 should not avail himself of the other ; so, having become 

 tired of his parliamentary duties, for which he did not 

 consider himself qualified, he resigned his seat at the end 

 of the second session ; but having, as he thought, qualified 

 himself by experience in the field for the principal office 

 of a sportsman, he unhesitatingly accepted of one of the 

 best of the midland countries, which became vacant, by 

 the resignation of a noble lord, in the second year after his 

 father's decease. 



The fine income he was now in the possession of rendered 

 pecuniary assistance unnecessary, and there was nothing 

 wanting to insure success to the new undertaking but 

 what must always operate against that of all undertakings 

 the benefit of experience. Frank Raby was a sportsman, 

 and in the truest acceptation of that term. He loved 

 hunting to his very soul ; he had studied it in its theory 

 as well as in the practice of it ; he understood it well in 

 all that related to the field ; but he had never been a 

 master of hounds, still less their huntsman. Like a 

 sensible man, then, he was anxious for instruction from 

 the best source, and consequently wrote the following 

 letter to the person whom he considered most able to 

 furnish him with it : 



" MELTON MOWBRAY, 18 . 



" MY DEAR SIR, I have the following inducements to 

 impose a task upon you. First the circumstance of your 

 pack having been the one with which I made my start 

 in the fox-hunting world ; secondly your science and 

 experience in all that relates to fox-hunting ; thirdly 

 your good-nature and kind-heartedness ; lastly, your zeal 

 for the welfare and credit of all that relates to the noble 

 science. A country, which you once hunted, is now 

 offered to me, and I feel disposed to take it ; nor is this all ; 

 I have flattered myself into the belief that I can hunt a 

 pack of foxhounds, and intend trying my hand at it. 

 What think you? Pray give me a candid answer, and, 

 if favourable to my views, I shall trespass on your 



