n XOTITIA VENATIOA. 



or three hundred guineas for a horse (an extra fifty hoing demanded if 

 quaUfied for a steeple-chase or hunters' sweepstakes), yet it would be 

 next to an impossibility to discover one single person who could be pre- 

 vailed upon to take the management of a pack of foxhounds, or to con- 

 tribute more than the price of a cover-hack towards the support of them. 

 The present system of living two-thirds of the year in London, or in a 

 foreign land, that most insinuating and undermining vice of gaming, 

 and the meretricious luxuries of the continent, have far greater charms 

 to the young man of fortune than the quiet and peaceful retreat of an 

 old family mansion-house in the country. The love of the chase 

 vanishes at the approach of the SAvallow ; and no more is thought of the 

 hoimd or the horse, until, by the hard rains of autumn, the ground is 

 rendered sufiiciently saturated for hard riding— an accomphshment 

 which is now considered the only requisite knowledge in hunting for tho 

 modern sportsman. These causes — together with the high pitch to 

 which political feeling is now carried in England — render it next to an 

 impossibility for any one person to have sufficient influence to prevail 

 upon his pheasant-feeding neighbours to ajlow the foxes to be preserved. 



In speaking of riding to hounds being the only desideratum amongst 

 the fox-hunters of the present day, a " Senior Sportsman" has justly 

 observed — " That at a time Avben such numbers of men are mad about 

 fox-hunting, I am surprised that so few gentlemen have learnt to enjoy 

 it rationally. The fashion of the present day is hard riding ; and at 

 night, over the convivial board, their only pleasure seems to be in relating 

 the exploits or disasters of their own or their friends' horses. Not a 

 Avord about the best or the worst hound in the pack, or any idea ever 

 started to ascertain whether by system or by accident they had contrived 

 to carry a scent for twenty miles over a country to kill a fox ; and how 

 so great an event has been achieved, few modern sportsmen can, with 

 any degree of accuracy, relate. 



Many years ago, I recollect a gentleman who kept ten horses in 

 Leicestershire, and who had been riding near me very often in a remark- 

 ably fine run, in which two of the most beautiful and interesting things 

 happened that I ever remember to have seen, and to whom I remarked 

 them Avhen the run was over. " Good God, sir," said he, " I sa^v 

 nothing of it !" This was a hard rider, who, from his own account, saAV 

 nothing, while riding his horse as fast as he could go, and as near tho 

 tail of the hounds as he could possibly get. And how should he ? For 

 a man behind the hounds cannot be a judge of what is going on in front, 

 and is tho first person (by pressing on them) to bring them to a cheek. 

 A good sportsman will, as often as possible, ride parallel with the pack, 

 not after them, unless by short turns he is obliged to do otherwise ; by 

 which means, he can see everything that is going on, and anticipate the 

 cause of hoiinds coming to a faxdt. 



In the modern days of econom^^ — sporting as well as political — a 

 committee is generally formed to squabble about doing that which one 

 man by himself would be ten thousand times more likely to carry into 

 sffect. The new mode of doing things by subscription is introduced ; 

 the niggardly system of curtailing and ret renchment is resorted to. And, 



