NECESSARY THOUGH ROUGH PRACTICE. ^O 



So to make a man a sportsman : if his re- 

 splendent star boded liis finding himself in that 

 " second heaven " namely, in the field, surrounded 

 hy his own pack of fox hounds, I would not let 

 him perform his novitiate in a fine scenting, 

 flying grass-country, where he would think more 

 of his riding than his hounds. No; send him 

 into a good rough one, well interspersed Avith 

 woodland, where foxes require a good deal of 

 badgering and driving to make, or rather force 

 them to break : this wdll teach him patience, give 

 him a knowledge of his hounds, and an ear to tell 

 him what they are at when his eye cannot inform 

 him. He will here learn what hunting is, that is, 

 hunting in difficulties, and not merely to be only 

 able to do what any man w^ho is not afraid can 

 do, namely, follow a flying pack that are always 

 in his sight with very frequently their fox in 

 sight also. It matters not to any one wdiether a 

 man who hunts with others^ hounds be a sports- 

 man or not, provided he be sufficiently so as in a 

 general w^ay to hold his tongue and not interfere 

 with the hounds, or get in their way ; but a 

 M. F. H. being a thorough sportsman just makes 

 the difference of hounds affording good sport to a 

 whole country or the reverse. 



When a man has served a proper apprenticeship 

 to hunting in different countries, so as to be able, 

 if he wished, to hunt a pack of fox-hounds in 



