400 HUNTING. 



and arable land, are all causes of checks. Thought- 

 less sportmen are apt to press too much on hounds, 

 particularly down a road. Every one should con- 

 sider that every check operates against the hounds, 

 and that scent is of a fleeting nature, soon lost, 

 never again to be recovered.'"* 



The following is the concluding paragraph, afford- 

 ing a good specimen of the writer's enthusiastic 

 love of fox-hunting, as also of a cultivated mind : — 

 " Fox-hunting,'' he asserts, " is a manly and fine 

 exercise, affording health to the body, and matter 

 and food for a contemplative mind. In no situa- 

 tion are the faculties of man more displayed. For- 

 titude, good sense, and collectiveness of mind, have 

 a wide field for exercise ; and a sensible sportsman 

 would be a respectable character in any situation 

 in life. The field is a most agreeable coffee-house, 

 and there is more real society to be met with there 

 than in any other situation of life. It links all 

 classes together, from the peer to the peasant. It 

 is the Englishman's peculiar privilege. It is not 

 to be found in any other part of the Globe, but in 

 England's true land of liberty ; and may it flourish 

 to the end of time ! " 



There is perhaps no part of the material of fox- 

 hunting more interesting than the management of 

 hounds in the kennel, which, we do not hesitate in 

 saying, presents one of the most curious scenes that 

 are anywhere displayed in the whole circle of the 

 transactions of mankind with the inferior animal 

 creation. To see sixty couples of those animals, all 



