THE HORSE. 227 



and fact, rather deserving of our protection than per- 

 secution. I have noted the largeness of the deer, 

 and I must own, that the tearing down of the deer 

 by a pack of hungry and ravenous hounds, has ever 

 imparted to my mind sensations, the very antipodes 

 to those of exhilaration and delight ; exclusive of the 

 horrible acts of cruelty which I have known to be 

 perpetrated at a certain hunt, by men more savage, 

 barbarous, and stolid than the hounds under their 

 direction. In former days, when an income would go 

 so much farther in procuring the necessaries and 

 luxuries of life than at present, (would such an advan- 

 tage return with our present population, were the 

 national debt reduced to the standard of those times ?) 

 the inferior aristocracy, or upper yeomanry of the 

 country, possessed of a landed estate of a few hun- 

 dred pounds a year, were able to keep packs of ten or 

 twelve couples of hounds, and a stable of hunters, en- 

 tertaining their sporting friends, and being entertained 

 interchangeably, with good solid dinners, washed down 

 with oceans of genuine old port, punch, and powerful 

 well brewed ale. We now live in days of the sign of 

 the case is altered ! To keep hounds at present, and 

 to answer all the concomitant expenses of horses, 

 servants, and company, even granting a system of 

 economy practicable, must put in requisition a rental 

 of considerable w r eight, whence every young man 

 succeeding to his estate, ought to look well before 

 him, previously to taking that jump. This gives oc- 

 casion to subscription hunts, in parts of the country 

 where are no private packs. There have been imme- 

 morially packs of foxhounds kept within a short 

 distance, little more than a convenient ride of the 



