244 HUNTING. 



and his Provinces are very Provincial indeed. He has done so, 

 not in scorn, very far indeed from that ; Whyte-Melville was too 

 good a sportsman to turn his nose up at the homeliest esta- 

 blishment in the roughest country in Great Britain, so long as 

 things were done in a workmanlike manner. But his design 

 was to accentuate the difference of ideas on the subject of sport 

 between ' Old Rapid ' and his son. So he describes how the 

 latter sees his fox run into after seven-and-twenty minutes 

 without a check over the pick of High Leicestershire, in which 

 run he has gone first from find to finish. And Papa Rapid 

 possesses his soul in a real wild hunting run ; in which some 

 twelve miles of rough and various ground have been covered 

 in an hour and three-quarters, with only one check to speak 

 of ; sharing his delights with a ' field ' consisting of Old Mat- 

 thew (the huntsman), and his one whip, the Vicar, a schoolboy 

 on his pony, and some three or four strapping yeomen. 1 His 

 enumeration of the merits of such hunting grounds as a train- 

 ing school for young sportsmen is worth quoting. 



In large woods, amongst secluded hills, or wild tracts of moor 

 intersected by impracticable ravines, a lover of the chase is com- 

 pelled by force of circumstances to depend on his own eyes, ears, 

 and general intelligence for his amusement. He finds no young 

 Rapid to pilot him over the large places, if he means going ; no 

 crafty band of second-horsemen to guide him in safety to the 

 finish, if his ambition is satisfied with a distant and occasional 

 view of the stirring pageant ; no convenient hand-gate in the 

 corner, no friendly bridge across the stream ; above all, no hurry, 

 ing cavalcade drawn out for miles, amongst which to hide, and 

 with whom pleasantly to compare notes hereafter in those self- 

 deceiving moments, when 



Dined, o'er our claret we talk of the merit, 

 Of every choice spirit that rode in the run. 

 But here the crowd, sir, can talk just as loud, sir, 

 As those who were forward enjoying the fun ! 



No. In the Provinces our young sportsman must make up his 

 mind to take his own part, to study the coverts drawn, and find 



1 Riding Recollections, chs. xiii. and xiv. 



