I. ON HORSING THE MEN. 163 



basket, and by his fortitude and exertions some of 

 them were carried up and restored to the pack. The 

 fox, however, escaped by some means or other into 

 a cleft in the rock. What Mr. Hodgson's feehngs at 

 this dreadful moment must have been, can be better 

 imagined than described. When he viewed from the 

 summit of this awful precipice his favourites wreathing 

 in the agonies of a lingering death, while their piteous 

 bowlings were only responded to by the greedy and 

 fiend-like scream of the sea-bird, or the distant 

 croaking of the raven as he watched his mangled 

 prey from an adjoining rock. 



ON HORSING THE MEN. 



With regard to horsing the men belonging to a pack 

 of fox-hounds, I shall write but a few words, as the 

 system of managing hunters used for that purpose is, 

 or rather ought to be, exactly similar to the one 

 pursued in the care of the first studs in the country. 

 No animals in the creation work harder than the horses 

 of a huntsman or whipper-in, who rides hard and does 

 his duty, particularly in a woodland country ; nor is 

 the proof of condition put to the test more frequently 

 than in the long-tiring chases, which horses attendant 

 on a pack of hounds are continually experiencing. 

 To say nothing of the respectability of a well-mounted 

 and properly appointed establishment, the purchasing 

 good-shaped and fresh young horses will be found far 

 less expensive in the end, than picking up cheap 

 under-bred brutes which may be half worn out before 

 they enter the service. Beckford justly observes, that 

 it is highly essential to mount the men well, " and that 

 there is no economy in giving them bad horses they 



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