94 OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 



Forest lame hounds ? It is well known, that, 

 when kept by the late Mr. Compton, in a kennel 

 built on an eminence, they had the lameness to 

 a great degree. In the present day, it is the 

 same in a kennel built some distance from it. 

 There are persons who have attributed it to the 

 " foot furze," a plant peculiar to the Forest, 

 and which I have seen prick hounds' feet so 

 severely, that it prevented their carrying that 

 head they were in the constant habit of doing. 

 Others fancy it is owing to their jumping the 

 high paling surrounding the new inclosures : it 

 cannot be that ; or why should the lameness 

 have occurred before the new inclosures were 

 made ? If I may be allowed to hazard an opinion, 

 I should say it was occasioned by the hounds 

 crossing the cold black bogs, when heated by 

 their exertions in the chase, which in some places 

 will not bear their weight, and which they must 

 wade through : the sudden chill appears to me 

 likely to cause this horrid calamity ; for I have 

 seen them return from hunting shivering with 

 cold, from the black bog dirt sticking so long 

 upon them. 



I cannot quit the New Forest without once 



, more mentioning Mr. Gilbert. He was a man 



that loved fox-hunting, a good sportsman without 



conceit ; but yet the sporting ivorld formed a good 



