50 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



than it was thought the whole country could have produced. 

 Indeed, the knight does not scruple to own, amongst his most 

 intimate friends, that, in order to establish his reputation this 

 way, he has secretly sent for great numbers of them out of 

 other countries, which he used to turn loose about the country 

 by night, that he might better signalize himself in their destruc- 

 tion the next day." 



Little thought the author of the paper in the Spectator, as 

 he penned these lines, what a satire he was writing on Masters 

 of Hounds in a later day, and how surely the nefarious trans- 

 actions of Leadenhall were shadowed forth in the words he 

 penned. This, however, is not to the point ; there may be 

 foundation for the charge in the manners of the time, or it may 

 be as apocryphal as the chase of fifteen hours through six 

 counties after a fox. ISTeither Budgell nor Addison were sports- 

 men, or at any rate only such a sort as permitted them to be 

 spectators of a hare-hunt ; yet we may take them as fair expo- 

 nents of the manners of their time, and just portrayers of the 

 society amidst which they lived. And it is evident fox-hunting 

 was then considered the sport of the young and robust, and hare- 

 hunting suited to old age and the decline of life. " In pro- 

 portion as his passion for the widow abated, and old age came 

 on, he left off fox-hunting ; but a hare is not yet safe that sits 

 within ten miles of his house." 



This is a marked change from the sentiments of thirty or 

 forty years before, as regards Eeynard. Although still ac- 

 counted as vermin, and his death rejoiced over, he is no longer 

 snared and knocked on the head, but hunted honourably to his 

 death with horse and hound, and has his mask preserved as a 

 trophy of the chase, even as it is now. He gradually rose 

 from this time forth in public estimation, yet it was not 

 until long after that he could be said to have held a position, 

 and been what would now be termed "in society" for those 

 who hunted him, and, as far as we may judge, were very 

 well pleased with the job, could not refrain from reviling 



