OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 93 



in no country can you see their work to so 

 great an advantage, or the cunning and tricks of 

 the hunted animal. Another superiority the New 

 Forest possesses ; that is, you can very often 

 hunt there when you cannot elsewhere. 



I remember once leaving Staffordshire, at a 

 time when the frost had stopped hunting in that 

 county for at least a fortnight ; having some 

 business in the Forest, I took the opportunity 

 of going there, when, to my great surprise, I 

 found on my arrival there was no appearance 

 of frost, nor had the hounds been prevented 

 hunting a single day. I of course returned home 

 as quickly as possible, thinking I should hunt 

 immediately ; but the difference of climate, in 

 the short distance of 140 miles, was so great, 

 that no hounds were able to hunt in less than 

 ten days after my return. In dry easterly winds, 

 when hounds in other countries cannot run a 

 yard, in the lower part of the Forest they often 

 have good sport. 



There is one serious objection to the New 

 Forest : experience has proved that the country 

 at times brings on an incurable lameness ; and 

 no master of hounds, to my knowledge, who 

 has ever hunted it, could find out the real cause. 

 It has been attributed by some people to the 

 kennel, — but why should all the kennels in the 



