OPINIONS OF A HUNTING COUNTRY. 163 



length he spoke : " we got better acquainted ; and at 

 a certain part of the journey I ventured a feeler, by 

 saying it looked like a good hunting country and 

 I assert, a good hunting country it looked undu- 

 lating, but not hilly, fair fences, large inclosures ; and, 

 judging from the foot-marks of cattle and tracks of 

 wheels, seemed as if it had carried sound during 

 winter. But my hirsute companion differed from me, 

 saying he knew the country well, and had hunted 



every inch of it : it was the d est country he ever 



rode over. I asked, " Why ? Was it a bad scenting 

 country, or were foxes scarce ?" He said, " Neither: 

 but the foxes were apt to run rings : it rode light, 

 and as the fences were not particularly strong, every 

 fellow could get along, and it was a d d annoy- 

 ance, on two-hundred-guinea horses, to find a pack of 

 farmers, and God knows w~ho, riding with one." This, 

 it seemed, was the only charge he could bring 

 against the country. Well, thinks I, you're an ugly 

 devil to look at, that's poz, and from your speech I 

 suspect not the best fellow in the world to know. 

 So, because a man might not, like him, be able to 

 keep a dozen hunters worth 200 gs. each, yet was 

 fond of hunting, this hairy bit of aristocracy sets up 

 his bristles because he cannot shake him off. I'll 

 answer for it he is a selfish overbearing savage. Now, 

 I tell you what, Ursa Major : I shrewdly suspect the 

 fault did not lie in the country or the nags ; but that 

 you found a few honest fellows, who took the un- 

 warrantable liberty of riding as well or a little better 

 than yourself, and that perhaps over some of their 

 own land, where they were so unmannerly as to 

 " come between the wind and your nobility," even on 

 horses of less value. How 1 should like to mortify 



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