294 THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN 



exercise, — if through wind and storms, he enjoys 

 his home so much the more. Dinner arrives, every- 

 thing is capital, he is in the highest spirits, and he 

 is happy with his wife and family. This is not 

 always the case with some only who do not hunt. 

 It is true they are also away all day, and return to 

 dinner, but looking pale and wretched, having no 

 appetite, and find fault with everything at table, — 

 probably not forgetting the table they have been 

 at during their absence. In short, men must be 

 employed ; and if they have no amusement in 

 the country, it is natural to suppose that they will 

 congregate, as abroad, in the metropohs, or a large 

 town. 



Although the scent was good, the wiiter thinks 

 it right to whip off, for he has just discovered that 

 many may suppose he had changed his fox, but he 

 was only a little wide ; and, as skirting is not 

 approved of, he returns to the subject of the keeper, 

 by relating a fact which will prove how very difficult 

 it is to believe some of them. A gentleman who 

 kept a pack of fox-hounds in the west of England 

 (with whom the writer was on a visit just before 

 the following circumstance had occurred, and after- 

 wards) was desirous of preserving both game and 

 foxes, as he always had done, and had just engaged 



