30 THE YORK UNION HUNT CLUB. 



choice old ballads ready at command, he is no man for 

 " Sinnington Hoont." There are no less than twelve 

 packs of fox-hounds hunting the county of York, some 

 of these are mere scratch affairs, but five or six are 

 old-established hunts, and the members are united in 

 one club, called the " York Union Hunt Club." This 

 is one of the most aristocratic societies in England ; and 

 none are admitted but those whose character will bear the 

 strictest investigation on all points. As a proof of the 

 stern determination of the members not to admit any 

 improper candidates into their society, I will record 

 the following circumstance, which was related to me 

 by one of its oldest supporters. A few years since a 

 person who was well known and duly appreciated for 

 his outre manners and overbearing vulgarity, wished 

 to become one of the " York Union Hunt Club," who 

 after being twice unsuccessful, the black balls pre- 

 dominating in an unprecedent number, resolved upon 

 the scheme of collecting a packed meeting composed 

 of three or four of its members, who were from some 

 cause or other under sufficient obligation to him, to 

 assist him in his forced entree. He was at length 

 elected, but not duly elected according to the rules 

 of the club, and at the next general meeting, our crest- 

 fallen hero was officially informed that he must not 

 consider himself a member of the " Y. U. H. C." but 

 if he wished to become a candidate, he had better get 

 some friend to propose him at the next meeting in the 

 usual manner. 



The hare was not included amono^st the animals of 

 chase by the ancient Britons, as we are informed by 

 Caesar, who tells us that they never ate the flesh of 



