A DANGEROUS SPORT. 327 



seven. You will remind me, perhaps, of the 



death of T -k, and the fall of D 1; 



but do accidents never happen on the road ? 

 The most famous huntsman and boldest rider 

 of his time, after having hunted a pack of 

 hounds for several years unhurt, lost his life 

 at last by a fall from his horse, as he was 

 returning home. — A surgeon of my acquaint- 

 ance has assured me, that in thirty years' 

 practice in a sporting country, he had not 

 once an opportunity of setting a bone for a 

 sportsman, though ten packs of hounds were 

 kept in the neighbourhood. This gentleman, 

 surely, must have been much out of luck, 

 or hunting cannot be so dangerous as it is 

 thought. Besides, they are all tJmid animals 

 that we pursue, nor is there any danger in 

 attacking them : they are not like the furious 

 beasts of the Gevauda)!, which, as a French 

 author informs us, twenty thousand French 

 chasseurs went out in vain to kill. 



If my time in writing to you has not been so 

 well employed as it might have been, you at 

 least will not find that fault with it : nor shall 

 I repent of having employed it in this manner, 

 unless it were more certain than it is that / 

 should have employed it better. It is true, 



