36 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



is the Leicestershire country, even there, when 

 the fixture was in the Loughborough part of it, a 

 celebrated M. of H. used to say, '' I shall have 

 my little Nottingham stocking lot out to-day," 

 and certainly a meet there and one at Bilsdon 

 did show a difference as to exclusiveness ; but let 

 it be borne in mind that this said "little Not- 

 tingham lot'' were quite a different sort of 

 persons to those they supplied with the produce 

 of Nottingham looms ; the latter, emerging from 

 Cheapside, Luclgate Hill, Fleet Street, &c., fa- 

 voured the Surrey, or Jolliffe, or the Derby with 

 their visits. I cavil not at any class of men if 

 they are sportsmen, but even in this case I do 

 most heartily dislike a superabundance of them. 

 We are told we cannot have too much of a good 

 thing : I deny this as regards a field. 



Such opinions, ideas, and reminiscences as I 

 have put down in the foregoing pages have arisen 

 from rather unusually early and long-continued 

 practice and participation in field sports of most 

 sorts ; they were in no shape collected under any 

 idea of their being published. But in this case, 

 allowing a portion of them may be erroneous, or 

 supposing the whole to be so, their publication 

 must be at all events harmless, for the reader can 

 consult better authority, and in one case reject 

 what he disapproves, and in the second reject the 

 whole if it seems advisable that he should do so. 



