S96 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Frenchmen not partial to Fox Hunting. 



him a fox chase. The Frenchman, after having been 

 well shaken, dirted, tired, run away with, and thrown 

 down, was asked, on his return, * Comment il avoit 

 trouve la chasse ? ' — ' Morbleu, Milord (said he, shrug- 

 ging up his shoulders) votre chasse est une chasse dia- 

 bolique!'" — In another place, Beckford remarks, "I 

 hunted two winters at Turin ; but their hunting is no 

 more like ours, than is the hot meal you there stand up 

 to eat, to the English breakfast you sit down to here. 

 Were I to describe their manner of hunting, their in- 

 finity of dogs, their number of huntsmen, their relays 

 of horses, their great saddles, great bits, and jack boots, 

 it would be no more to our present purpose than the 

 description of a wild boar chase in Germany, or the 

 hunting of jackals in Bengal. C'est une chasse magni- 

 Jique, et voila tout. — However, to give you an idea of 

 their huntsmen, I must tell you that one day the stag 

 (which is very unusual) broke cover, and left the forest ; 

 a circumstance which gave as much pleasure to me as 

 displeasure to the rest — it put every thing into confusion. 

 I followed one of the huntsmen, thinking he knew the 

 country best ; but it was not long before we were sepa- 

 rated : the first ditch we came to stopped him. I, eager 

 to go on, hallooed out to him, * Allons, jjiquettr, sautez 

 done.'' — * Non, pardi, (replied he, very coolly) cest un 

 double fosse — -je ne saute i^as des double fosses.' '* 



From the nature of the country, having few, if any, 

 fences, what a Frenchman would regard as excellent 

 runs may, no doubt, be obtained ; indeed, Colonel 

 Thornton remarks, in one part of his Sporting Tour, 

 that the finest bursts he ever enjoyed took place in 



