FOX-HUNTING. 83 



ticiilar point to run to, being equally at home on all sides, 

 and, of course, lias not the inducement to make any determinate 

 point. Of course good runs do occur in wild countries when a 

 fox is found far from home, and makes up his mind to reach it, 

 and carries out the old verse, — 



A stranger, a traveller, stout, gallant, and shy, 



With his earths ten miles off, and those earths in his eye. 



Then, as the scent is, as a rule, good in such localties, there is a 

 clipper in store for you, and it behoves the man who means to 

 see him pulled down carefully to nurse his horse and keep down 

 wind of the pack ; but the inducements for a fox to run straight 

 are certainly not nearly so great as in a country where he knows 

 he can only find shelter in some covert a few miles away. On 

 the other hand, if he makes a point, there are fewer obstacles to 

 turn him from it ; but I believe with the Rev. J. Eussell, that 

 you can head no animal living, for if he cannot make his point 

 good at one place, he will at another. There is a drawback beyond 

 that of mere sport to hunting in a wild country, which, with half 

 the men who meet hounds, will, I am sure, be thought well 

 worthy of consideration, which is the unpleasantness of riding 

 home by twilight over a wild, houseless, uncultivated tract during 

 the dark, dreary winter months. At the same time I must say 

 that in such countries I have enjoyed the chase exceedingly, 

 both in spring and autumn, one advantage of moorland districts 

 being that you can commence cub-hunting as soon as you like, and 

 may also keep on in spring as long as the weather will allow. 



This leads me to consider another great advantage of fox 

 hunting, which is, that it can be obtained more universally, and 

 in a greater state of perfection, than any other sport. The 

 nature of the country it is pursued in has less influence on it ; 

 and although I do not for a moment compare a good run over 

 plough with a good one on the grass, and I know that, as 

 a rule, hunting in a heavily-wooded country is a different 

 thing to hunting with the Quorn or Pytchley, yet it is 



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