CHAPTER XIIL 



The Methods of 'pursuing the Chase in England and 

 in France compared. — Anecdotes of an extraordinary 

 Pedestrian Fox Hunter. — Observations on the Mis- 

 chievous Propensities of the Fox ; and upon the 

 Injury sustained by his Dejrredations. 



If we compare the manner in which the Chase is con- 

 ducted on the Continent, particularly in France, with 

 the mode of pursuit adopted in England ; or, at least, if 

 we look at the matter with English feeling, we shall be 

 apt to despise the former, although attended with much 

 pomp and parade. At the same time, it is but fair to 

 observe, that a Frenchman, accustomed from infancy to 

 be fond of shew, would naturally enough prefer his boar, 

 his wolf, or his stag hunt, to our enthusiastic and mad- 

 dening pvu'suit of the fox : the latter, I am inclined to 

 think, would not be well suited to the nerves of a French- 

 man, who, unaccustomed to such horses as the English 

 hunter, as also to our method of crossing a country, 

 would regard a five-barred gate, or indeed any rasper, 

 as an insurmountable obstacle. Beckford, in one of his 

 amusing and instructive letters, observes, that a French- 

 man was on a visit to the late Lord C , "who 



Ijeing a great sportsman, thought that he could not oblige 

 his friend more than by offering him to partake of an 

 amusement, which he himself was so fond of :— he there- 

 fore mounted him on one of his best horses, and shewed 



