MEN MAKE THE MONEY GO. 45 



perhaps say palliation, to be offered is the one I have 

 before given ; namely, the pleasure it affords to many 

 is an excuse for the pain we inflict on one animal ; 

 for in hare-hunting, the hare only suffers : a horse, if 

 in any condition, cannot, unless he gets his death 

 from cold. If I dare flatter myself that what I write 

 will be read by many, I should feel my ears tingle ; 

 for I should have every hare-hunter on my devoted 

 head. I am no thistle-whipper myself, never was, 

 never had patience for it ; but I am quite free to 

 admit that if a man wishes to really see hunting, he 

 will see more of it in one month with harriers than in 

 ten with fox-hounds, particularly in the present style 

 of fox-hunting. We have become a set of Steeple- 

 chase riders with a fox and hounds before us; but 

 real hunting is over, unless with some "fine old 

 English Gentleman," if he is to be found, who keeps 

 his hounds for hunting's sake, his own amusement, and 

 that of his immediate friends and neighbours. After 

 all, hunting is but an amusement ; and whether fol- 

 lowed in one way or the other, if we are amused the 

 end is answered : but if we want to see huntino;, or 

 are old-fashioned enough to like the music of hounds, 

 we can get it now only by going with harriers, or 

 getting up in the morning and going cub-hunting. 

 " Hark on the drag I hear," is no more. Display at 

 tlie " meet " is the first desideratum : ridino- in the 

 first flight in the chase, the second. At such a meet, 

 he who, as I have just done, would be bold enough 

 to talk about hounds hunting or the music of hounds, 

 would be considered as great a Goth as the man^ de- 

 tected in attending to the music of an Opera. Some 

 people — of course they must be " people that nobody 

 knows " — may say, if you care not about hunting 



