HUNTING TOURS. 145 



frequently the cause of their being censured, 

 but that was not the case with Sebright, 

 whose mild and respectful " Hold hard, 

 gentlemen, pray hold hard !" had more effect 

 than all the strong expressions and exhibitions 

 of temper for which some huntsmen are occa- 

 sionally conspicuous. With every desire to 

 make the most charitable allowances for the 

 extreme provocation to which huntsmen are 

 subject on such very trying occasions, I feel 

 that, without any personality, this is a good 

 opportunity of introducing the subject, and, 

 whenever an uncivil or discourteous expres- 

 sion is about to escape from their lips that 

 they will check it, with the remembrance that 

 it is not the language of the renowned veteran 

 Tom Sebright. It would seem that the pre- 

 liminary education of a huntsman, to be 

 successful, should commence at an extremely 

 early age : there is very ancient authority for 

 this, and we have modern examples. In a 

 most quaint and curious production from the 

 pen of Edmund of Langley, one of the sons of 

 the third Edward, written about the close of 

 the fourteenth century, and one of the earliest 

 authorities on hunting, directions how a hunts- 

 man should be trained are given : — " First, he 



H 



