MR. meynell's system. 127 



unsteady amongst hares, than others which had not 

 been entered in that manner. Nevertheless, with all 

 his experience in the matter, and eloquence into the 

 bargain, he did not succeed in making me a convert to 

 his system, although I believe him to have been a most 

 excellent judge in hunting, and a very first-rate per- 

 former both in the field and in the kennel. Old Will 

 Carter, many years huntsman to Sir Mark Sykes, was 

 another of these hare-hunting fox-hunters. He was an 

 out and outer in his way, and had a very good pack of 

 hounds, as old sportsmen, who live in Yorkshire and 

 who hunted with him for years, have informed me ; 

 but they were always, as I understood, fond of " currant 

 jelly" in wild weather. The great Mr. Meynell was I 

 believe the first who brought this system into fashion, 

 but like a good many more of the absurdities of our 

 forefathers, it has now become exploded. 



We will now return to the old hounds, which, when 

 we had left them, had just concluded the by-gone 

 season; their services are now at an end for the present; 

 their energies will be no longer required in the field 

 for at least three months ; and, by comparative rest 

 and indulgence, their mutilated feet and battered joints 

 are to be fresh braced up, and their nerves restrung 

 with a new vigour for the labours of the next hunting 

 season ; but this rest must not be increased to slothful 

 indolence, nor this indulgence allowed to grow into a 

 contraction of laziness and fat. The stamina is to be 

 preserved by good and nourishing food, but the 

 elasticity of the muscles, and the clearness of the 

 respiratory organs, must be kept in tune by a propor- 

 tionable quantity of exercise, and occasional doses of 



