HUNTING DIRECTORY. 297 



Comparison of French and English Hunting. 



France ; however, although the Colonel speaks of them 

 — not exactly in raptui'es perhaps — -but in terms of un- 

 qualified approbation, yet they are not exactly the sort 

 of bursts to suit the taste of the generality of English 

 sportsmen : — a burst of three or ten miles over a cham- 

 paign country, without the interruption, perhaps, of a 

 single leap, is not the kind of sport from which a true 

 English fox hunter derives his greatest pleasure — he is 

 pleased with the intervention of a few raspers and other 

 difficulties; to surmount which renders the run much 

 more interesting, and maybe said to constitute his greatest 

 delight. Different countries have different customs, and 

 different tastes ; and I can very easily conceive, that a 

 good run in England with a fox would be as unpleasant, 

 u'ksome, and even alarming to a Frenchman, as the 

 hunting in France would be insipid and tedious to an 

 English sportsman. The number of Englishmen, how- 

 ever, who have visited France, and many of whom have 

 taken up a temporary residence in that country, has, in 

 all probability, somewhat improved the French system 

 of sporting. This seems tolerably evident from the 

 number of English hounds and English horses which 

 the nobility and gentry of France have procured within 

 the few last years. 



That the French have much improved in what relates 

 to the chase, is evident from a number of circumstances 

 which will impress the mind on a slight retrospective 

 glance — some of the grosser absurdities have been alto- 

 gether abandoned : — some years back, for instance, the 

 hounds of the king of France were fed with wheaten 

 bread of the finest and best quality! — Tlie kennel win- 



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