NOTITIA VENATICA. 3 



SO trivial, that will not amply re[)ay strict examination either into the 

 most hidden arcana or the most humhle of its departments : whatever is 

 worth doing, is worth doing well ; knowledge is power, and where the 

 scrutinizing eye of the master is familiar with the objects upon whicli it 

 may rest, and is capable, through experience, of judging of the industry 

 or negligence of his agents, the economy of every description of estab- 

 lishment will be carried out to a far greater extent than under the super- 

 ficial and casual observance of the votary of indolence and neglect. 

 Where orders are given without skill, and when ignorance or inattention 

 mark the master's character, it is a tolerably certain mode of marring 

 that of the servant, who becomes idle in proportion as he perceives his 

 master's commands to be absurd and frivolous. 



The time Avas when the knowledge of the discipline of the kennel was 

 acquired with quite as keen a zest as the more exhilarating accomplish- 

 ments of the field. Hound-breeding was at that period as scientifically 

 pursued as sheep-breeding, and the successful perseverance of Mr. 

 Meynel and the first Lord Yarborough Avill ever be deserving of the 

 warmest gratitude from all true sportsmen, for lighting up as they did 

 what might be justly termed the dawn of science in the chase. But 

 money is not so plentiful as it was in the war times, or the science has 

 reached the acme of its perfection, or perhaps more lucrative specula- 

 tions on the turf or the gaming table are more attractive to the " sport- 

 ing characters"* of the present age ; for such is the all-transforming 

 power of cupidity, that even our national amusements, which were ever 

 intended to be a relaxation from more important duties, are labori- 

 ously cultivated by thousands of our gentry as a soil for profitable specu- 

 lation and golden fruit. 



Wlio, I ask, is the most likely to be an ornament to the society of the 

 aristocracy of this country — the man whose early Hfe is passed away 

 pent up in cities, and whose mind and taste have been weakened and 

 vitiated by every kind of refined luxury and excitement ; or his whose 

 early days have tranquilly rolled on, soothed as it were by the various 

 rural pursuits and requirements which have so pre-eminently distin- 

 guished Englishmen upon all occasions of competition ? 



The accomplishments of the country and the town, or even of this 

 country and of any other, will, I affirm, bear not the slightest compari- 

 son. The greatest success may be commanded at the card table, the 

 billiard room, or the dice-box, by a French valet, a waiter, or a groom ; 

 in the more aristocratic recreations of lumting, shooting, and fishing, 

 the English gentleman alone stands unrivalled. But as, of all these de- 

 lightful amusements, fox-hunting Avill be the only topic aftbrding matter 



* I beg my readers to clearly undarstuiid, tliat the ditt'erence between gold and 

 iron cannot be greater than between a sport sman and what is termed a ''sporting 

 character." The first is one who pursues as a gentleman, and is an adept at all or 

 any of our ackowledged field-sports. The latter includes a vast and intricate mass of 

 character, too numerous to be mentioned; amongst them., however, we may rank the 

 layer of thousands against the Derby favourite, the pigeon-shot, the maker of trot- 

 ting-matches, the flash dog-fighter of Whitechapel, &c., &c., not forgetting the 

 humble linnet-fancier or the ragged bird-catcher of the Seven Dials. 



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