90 OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 



expense of the table is a mere trifle. Tlie paupers 

 in any poor-house in England would fancy they 

 were going to be starved if only allowed the 

 same food upon which many of the farmers in 

 France live. I am here speaking of those parts 

 of Normandy which, for a length of time I was 

 in the frequent habit of visiting. In Lent, their 

 chief food is beans, with a little butter and a 

 few onions (if the latter are not too dear), and 

 sour milk curds, with very coarse brown bread, 

 which they eat in large quantities. The ordinary 

 beverage is weak sour cider. At other times of 

 the year they certainly have some boiled beef 

 once a week, but their general food is vegetables. 

 When labourers are employed, they work very 

 hard, and continue at their labour the whole 

 day, with the exception of one hour allowed for 

 dinner. Our farmers, thank God ! live better, 

 and have more of the enjoyments of human beings, 

 and many of them occasionally indulge in hunting, 

 the only desirable recreation they can enjoy. 

 From this it will appear, that under all circum- 

 stances, the English farmer cannot possibly sell 

 his corn at so low a price as the foreigner. 



But now to my text ; formerly, in the New 

 Forest, it was the custom in the spring for the 

 hounds to meet at break of day, to enable them 

 to find their fox, with what is called a drag. No 



