252 FOX-HUNTING IN NORTH WALES. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Fox-Hunting in North Wales. — Two distinct Varieties of Par- 

 tridges to be found there. — Parvenu Encroacliments on the 

 old Hunting-Grounds. — Woodcocks and Grouse. — Climate 

 and Provisions. — Poaching in the Rivers. — A Pack of North 

 Wales Fox-hounds. 



It may prove an instructive lesson to English 

 Masters of fox-hounds, and to those sticklers for 

 all the outward pomps and state ceremonies attend- 

 ant upon, and considered indispensable to, our 

 huge, overgrown fox-hunting establishments in 

 England, to know how the chase of the fox is car- 

 ried on among a people who still speak the lan= 

 guage, and very many of them still preserve the 

 manners and customs of their forefathers. English- 

 men will be slow to believe that amidst the moun- 

 tainous districts of North Wales the race of 

 ancient Bi'itons yet exists, unalloyed with other 

 blood, and that there are thousands of the peasants 



