SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 261 



with any portion, and without reservation in writing 

 it cannot be reclaimed. The proprietors of coverts 

 have also an undoubted right, supposing them to be 

 inefficiently and irregularly hunted, to offer such 

 coverts to a neighbouring master. 



In bygone times, in the days of Noel, Meynell, 

 and Corbett, foxhunting establishments were so few 

 and far between, and foxes so scarce from the prices 

 set upon their heads as vermin, that immense tracts 

 of country were occupied by one master of hounds, 

 and at that time barely sufficed to find employment 

 for one pack. But as the love of foxhunting in- 

 creased, and in consequence the preservation of 

 foxes, the extended area of country, then considered 

 only sufficient for the maintenance of one establish- 

 ment, became evidently too large for monopoly, and 

 thus necessarily and fortunately subdivisions have 

 taken place, to suit the temper and requirements of 

 the age we live in. The pressure of public opinion 

 has also exercised a very proper influence in this 

 matter, since 



" Those now hunt who ne'er did hunt before, 

 And those who hunted love to hunt the more." 



The fact is, that foxhunting has become exceedingly 

 fashionable of late years. It tends greatly to the 

 amusement of those who are bound, willingly or 

 unwillingly, to spend certain months of the year 

 and those the most dreary in their country quar- 

 ters. Shooting is all very well in its way; battue 

 shooting, the tamest of all ; duck and snipe shooting 

 the wettest of all ; the billiard table, a dernier 

 ressort in bad weather ; but without foxhunting, the 



