48 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



tern of preserving game, nor the quarrel-breeding, niob-coUecting, and 

 cruel exhibition of the steeple chase, supplant that noble pursuit, Avhich 

 affords recreation to all classes of society. Beckford says, Avith great 

 truth, that " hunting is the soul of a country life ; it gives healtli to 

 the body and contentment to the mind ; and is one of the few pleasures 

 we can enjoy in society without prejudice cither to ourselves or our 

 friends." It not only finds employment for numerous hands in nearly 

 all our trades and manufactures, but amongst the higher ranks it is an 

 eifectual security against the intrusion of idleness and si)leen ; it aftbrds 

 to the man of property ample scope for the display of generous and 

 social feelings, and far better supplies the place of the more fashionable 

 and expensive amusements of the metropolis, v/hich only tend to excite 

 and not to satisfy our fancied and artificial wants. 



