G2 HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



rider for the full enjoyment of the sport, as they are indispen- 

 sable to the due maintenance of order in the field, and to pre- 

 vent that kelte?' skelter system ot riding, so much the fashion in 

 the present day, offensive alike to the master of the hounds and 

 all true sportsmen, and to which may be attributed the critical 

 checks which so often occur in the chase, and frequently the 

 destruction of a good day's sport. 



Fox-hunting has been styled by its ardent admirers as par 

 excellence the ''Noble Science," and without intending to detract 

 from other pursuits of a like nature, I certainly think it has 

 every just claim to this proud distinction. Whether we take 

 into consideration the noble animals employed in this manly 

 sport, the horse and the hound — the nature of the animal pur- 

 sued — the ardour and excitement inseparable from the chase, the 

 talents necessary to be employed, to bring it to a successful 

 issue, the difficulties to be encountered, and the courage, tact, 

 and perseverance with which alone they can be overcome, it 

 will be admitted by all candid minds to have a fair title to 

 that pre-eminence which has been claimed for it. 



Fox-hunting has been compared to a sort of warfare, and what 

 better school could there be found to prepare our youth for the 

 battle field? It makes them good horsemen, teaches them to 

 look danger boldly in the face, to disregard falls, hard knocks 

 and bruises, inures them to undergo fatigue with cheerfulness, 

 wet and cold without flinching, and braces their hearts and 

 nerves for the bolder enterprises. In a national point of view, 

 therefore, and as tending to the welfare of the state, fox-hunting 

 is entitled to all and much greater support than it generally 

 meets with. From the earliest ages down to the present time, 

 hunting has been, in some shape or other, the favourite pursuit 

 of man, whether for pleasure, or the means of subsistence, also 

 the dog his favorite companion in the chase. 



The nobler beasts of venery, such as the stag, the wolf, and the 

 wild boar, have gradually faded away upon the increase of 

 population and advancement of agriculture ; and all save the 

 former are now unknown in the British Isles. The red deer or 

 stag is in his natural state limited to the wild hills and deep 

 morasses of Scotland, although some few still exist in the west 

 of England, on the borders of Exmoor, where the once royal 

 sport of stag hunting in its legitimate sense is still kept up, if 

 not with all the pomp and circumstance of former days, yet 

 witli the ardour and enthusiasm, for which the sporting men of 

 Devon and Somerset have ever been conspicuous. 



Fox-hunting has now taken the place of the more dangerous 

 pursuits of the wolf and boar, which were generally character- 



