150 NOTITIA VENATTf'A. 



cevtaiuty of their being continued from one year to another, it may he 

 found to answer ; hut it is a disreputable way of doing business, to say 

 the best of it. The horses, from lameness or some other cause, are 

 continually being changed, and by their not being accustomed to he 

 ridden amongst hounds, frequently kick and injure them. With regard 

 to the danger of kicking, I can speak most feelingly, having suffered 

 with a fractured limb from the very cause I have been mentioning. 

 Amongst the many speculators in horse-flesh Avho have attempted to 

 jirovide hunters for the above purpose, none have ever succeeded in 

 giving satisfaction to their employers, excepting Mr. Tilbury ; and his 

 extreme liberality, and constant desire to accommodate those gentlemen 

 who have been induced to hire hunters from his yard, have no doubt been 

 the chief reasons for his having almost an entire monopoly in that des- 

 cription of business. 



To give general satisfaction to all classes who may he interested in 

 the operations of a hunting establishment will, I fear, be found a task 

 too difficult for any one, however iudefatigable and courteous he may he, 

 to accomplish. Each side of the country ought to be hunted fairly, the 

 had Avith the good ; and this system, Avhen impartially pursued, Avill be 

 found more likely to produce a continuance of sport, than perpetually 

 relying on the smaller covers, merely because they arc situated in the 

 open. When the fixtures are made out for advertisement, care should 

 be taken not to hunt any favourite covers on that side of the country 

 when it is the market-day of the neighbourhood ; it causes a great dis- 

 appointment to decidedly one of the most respectable body of men in the 

 British community, namely, the yeomen and farmers ; and upon whose 

 good Avill the preservation of the foxes, and a kindly feeling towards the 

 numeroiis gentlemen Avho come out, more materially depends than is 

 very often considered. I remember some years ago complaining to a 

 farmer who Avas a good sportsman, and AA'ho resided near the celebrated 

 Kenilworth chase, of the scarcity of foxes in his neighbourhood, a large 

 Avoodland ha\'ing been draAvn blank on the previous day. His answer 

 Avas, that his neighboiu-s having been deprived of the pleasure of hunt- 

 ing, by the hounds being sent to that side on the Friday, Avhen they all 

 Avished to go to Coventry Market, had determined to have a grand battue 

 on every Thursday, it being more likely to have sport on that day, as the 

 Avoods Avould have had six days' rest. If Ave Avere to give too ready a 

 credence to every murmur and complaint Avhich the ill-conditioned are 

 ahvays, and in many instances unjustly, prepared to make about damage 

 done to crops and fences, Ave shoidd be laying oursch^es open to a very 

 hcaA^y tax upon fox-hunting ; but Avlicre absolute mischief has been 

 caused by inadvertently driving sheep into pits or rivers, Avhereby they 

 have been droAvned, or AA'here a crop has been imdoubtedly injured by 

 being frequently cut up by the horsemen near to a favourite cover, a 

 handsome remuneration ought undoubtedly to be made to the farmer thus 

 suffering. If this kind of attention and couitesy /ro»?. the field toAvards 

 the country people Avere rather more practised than it is, the disappoint- 

 ment of a blank day Avould be scarcely ever experienced ; and those self- 

 created 'incu of fashion who swarm in the various Sjjas in many of the 



