246 HUNTING. 



his boots and breeches, and that is about all that there is left for 

 him to learn ! 



And he adds a shrewd fear lest he should ' offend an incalcu- 

 lable number of good fellows and good sportsmen, were I to 

 describe as provincial establishments, the variety of hunts, north, 

 south, east, and west, with which I have enjoyed so much good 

 company and good fun. Each has its oivn claim to distinction, 

 some have collar -s, all have sport? 



But there are Provinces and Provinces. Such countries as 

 that in which Squire Rapid was wont to bring his foxes to hand, 

 with the aid of those incomparable hounds Challenger and 

 Charmer, are rare now, and grow rarer every day, what with the 

 march of steam and of intellect. And when found, their beauties 

 and virtues, which we for our part would be the last of men to 

 disparage, having indeed both by nature and training, a strong 

 fancy for the more unfashionable side of fox hunting their 

 charms, we say, are rather local than general. Born to them, 

 he, we are inclined to think, would be something of an ass who 

 should leave them for the more violent and gaudier delights of 

 the Shires as perhaps Mr. Sawyer may have sometimes thought 

 when things went wrong with his pretty wife ; for had he stayed 

 at home, content to triumph over the Nimrods of his native 

 wilderness, he had never met Miss Cissy Dove. Poor Bromley- 

 Davenport has, indeed, vowed that he 



Counts the swell provincial lower than the Melton Muff; 



but the poet, we have the best possible authority for knowing, 

 is ' a maker of images and very far gone from the truth.' Still, 

 charming as these few natural nooks and corners of Old Eng- 

 land are, not many, we imagine, meditating on some pleasant 

 place wherein to pitch his hunting tent and enjoy his sport with 

 something less than Meltonian frequency and ardour, and at 

 something considerably less than Meltonian expense, would 

 select such a one. As a rule they are 'far from rail and 

 turnpike road,' and that is a drawback to all hunting quarters 

 however much of an advantage it may be to all hunting grounds. 

 But there is plenty of choice for him nearer civilisation. He 



