IN THE LAST CENTURY. 15 



by genuine old sportsmen, from real love of the 

 chase, and everything connected with it ; and how 

 many instances could I quote in support of this 

 assertion ! Such as the fine old Yorkshire Squire, 

 George Kirton, who lived to the patriarchal age of 

 one hundred and twenty-five, and who, after hav- 

 ing followed the chase beyond his eightieth year, 

 regularly attended unkennelKng the fox till he had 

 attained his hundredth. Such as the Duke of 

 Cleveland, who during many years hunted his 

 own hounds six days a week, and who, when it 

 was objected to his kennel, that it was so near the 

 house that the savour of the boiler might some- 

 times find its Avay into it, replied that probably 

 it might, but that " all his family were too well 

 bred to fox-hunting to mind that." Such as 

 an old medical man, well known to the sports- 

 men of the last generation, who, when a fox had 

 been unfortunately caught in a trap set in his 

 garden for vermin, and had got its leg broken, took 

 infinite pains to set it, tended it with the utmost 

 care till it got well, and then, setting it at liberty, 

 hunted and killed it in the legitimate manner. 

 But the old race is gone, and lumting is 

 now followed for fashion's sake — om^ Nimrods of 

 the nineteenth century know little, and care less, 

 about hunting or hounds. They go out for a 



