A NICE BUNCH OF COMMODITIES. 173 



keeping where you can see most of the hunting ; 

 nothing, I conceive^ makes a man look so little 

 (as a sportsman) as when, after all but butchering 

 his horse, if he is asked a question as to the hunt- 

 ing, to find he knows nothing about the matter, 

 or what the hounds have been doing : one is 

 almost tempted to say to such a man, ^What the 

 deuce buisness have you here?^ Any hounds are 

 good enough for such a man : drafts from differ- 

 ent kennels, and a bunch of red herrings well 

 perfumed, would quite answer his purpose; any 

 dogs would hunt this, and if he maimed one or 

 two they would be of little more value than the 

 herrings, or himself (speaking of him as a sports- 

 man). 



^^What are we to do to-morro«,^^ said my 

 guest, " for I heard you tell the men Ave should 

 want the horses at ten ? '^ 



" Why," said I, " though I hope my character, 

 as a sportsman, ranks moderately well, I must 

 admit I am not so keen a one as many men are ; 

 the fox-homids^ fixture to-morrow is fourteen 

 miles from us, a country they seldom hunt, and 

 one I never wdsh to see ; nothing I detest so much 

 as a rough, thickly enclosed, wood country ; you 

 have to badger a fox for an hour in one cover, he 

 then only bolts off, and into another close by. If 

 you keep outside you never see a hound, and if 

 you get in you tear your clothes, your own and 



