EOESES AND HOUNDS. 71 



CHAPTER XI. 



Change in the hours of meeting — Difference in the breed of foxes, and 

 in the speed of the race-horses of the old and the modern school — Eclipse 

 and Flying Childers — Number of stalUons in 1777 — Faults in the pre- 

 sent system of fox-hunting — Quotations from Markham — Condition of 

 hounds iu different coimtries — Seasons for the change in foxes. 



We must now commence operations by either purchasing a 

 ready-made pack of hounds, or forming one by drafts from other 

 kennels. At the end of every hunting season there are gene- 

 rally two or three packs submitted to the hammer by Messrs, 

 Tattersall, or disposed of by private contract through their 

 agency. Although horses still maintain high prices, even higher 

 than ever, the same observation, for what reason I know not, 

 does not hold good with regard to hounds. There are certainly 

 many more packs of hounds kept now than formerly in the days 

 of Meynell and Corbet ; but hunting men have increased pan 

 passu also. In place of the forty or fifty who, in bygone clays, 

 were wont to greet the master and the rising sun at the covert 

 side, we may now count two or three hundred assembled at a 

 favourite fixture in a good country, at the fashionable hour of 

 eleven, about the hour when our forefathers returned from the 

 chase to prepare for dinner. 



" Fashion in all things blindly rules. 

 The jest of wise men, guide of fools." 



Still there is no reason why we should quarrel about hours, and 

 our enlightened Nimrods of the present generation have so 

 many arguments in favour of late hours : — " No reason why 

 we should get up in the middle of the night ; hunting was not 

 intended for a labour, but a recreation ;" " Scent is generally 

 better as the day grows older," [query] ; " Sensible hour, eleven ; 

 plenty of time for breakfast and reading your letters before 

 starting for the covert side ;" and, to crown all, " Foxes more 

 likely to show sport, having had more time to digest their supper 

 of last night." There is something in this last remark ; what 

 a cowardly crew our grandpapas must have been to disturb poor 

 Mr. Keynard before he had fully enjoyed his first nap, and so soon 

 after dinner too ! Yet the said Mr. Reynard, although so 

 unceremoniously treated, contrived pretty often to show them a 

 light pair of heels, and beat them out of sight and hearing. 

 Then they were such a set of slow coaches in those days, with 

 their pigtails, mahogany boot-tops, and garters round their 

 knees ! Not a whit slower, my fashionable friends, than you 



