156 THE OLD AND NEW SCHOOL. 



he thought there could be no harm in the contents of 

 the bottle, as he had seen a lady drinking some of the 

 same kind, through the window, just before. This 

 man had but one fault in the world ; in other respects, 

 he was a most excellent and trustworthy servant, and 

 one of the quickest and best sportsmen I ever saw 

 handle a whip ; he had lived twenty years in two 

 of the most noted hunting establishments in England, 

 but gin became his ruin. 



Changed as the system is, during the last fifty 

 years, for the better, still the old school had a deal 

 of the right sort of knowledge gained by extreme 

 patience and the observation of circumstances ; the 

 pace of the present day is too fast to allow time for a 

 huntsman to reflect; all bethinks about is "how they 

 are going," I shall be all behind with these jealous 

 fellows, and his eyes are on the horses instead of where 

 they ought to be, on his hounds. Hunting was no 

 doubt at its zenith about twenty-five years ago, when 

 men rode well enough to get to the hounds without 

 doing mischief; the huntsmen of that day had been 

 mostly bred up as whippers-in under real good sports- 

 men, they could hunt as well as ride, and knew what 

 they were about, whether in the woodlands or the 

 open ; but the modern huntsman has been put up 

 since steeple-chasing came in, because old Tom Cast- 

 well, or Jack Cheerly had got too slow to ride against 

 modern fields, but Tom generally killed his fox or run 

 him to ground every day he went out, and his hounds 

 could hunt through deer, hares, or village gardens,* 



* Nothing is more prejudicial to scent, than the smoke from a wood or turf fire, 

 which Langs about small cottages. This may be easily perceived by hounds 

 generally getting into difficulties when approaching those places. 



