51 OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 



The giving up a certain part of your country, 

 held by the concurrence of the neighbouring 

 gentlemen, without their sanctioning the measure, 

 is by no means the same thing as only allowing 

 another hunt to draw some of yoiu- coverts, when 

 you can do without them. 



" It needs no ghost to tell us " that Leicester- 

 shire stands pre-eminent for fox-hunting ; but I 

 have heard from some old sportsmen, the foxes 

 do not run so straight as formerly, owing to 

 canals, and so many new gorses. I met, the 

 other day, some Leicestershire men, who told me, 

 (what all the youngsters of the day had told me 

 before,) that such sport never was known, nor 

 such riding, and that IMelton never was so full. 

 A good pack of hounds will always show sport 

 in any country ; and it cannot be denied, but a 

 very superior one now hunts the country, and 

 the owner spares no trouble or expense to show 

 sport. I have no doubt the IMeltonians over a 

 country are very superior ; but if the young men 

 of the present day ride more scientifically than 

 they did in the time of the late Mr. Meynell, 

 they must be very good indeed. I was pleased 

 to hear Melton was so very full ; no doubt 

 many go for the sake of hunting,— and it is said, 

 many go also for the sake of playing Short Whist, 

 and that fascinating game Ecarte. For many 



