236 THE bard's idea of a fox-hunter. 



High bound, resistless ; nor the deep morass 

 Refuse, but through the shaking wilderness 

 Pick your nice way into the perilous flood ; 

 Bear fearless, of the raging instinct full ; 

 And, as you ride the torrent to the banks, 

 Your triumph sounds sonorous, running round 

 From rock to rock in circling echoes toss'd ; 

 Then scale the mountains to their woody tops ; 

 Rush down the dangerous steep ; and o'er the lawn, 

 In fancy swallowing up the space between. 

 Pour all your speed into the rapid game ; 

 For happy he ! who stops the wheeling chase. 

 Has every maze evolved, and every guile 

 Disclosed ; who knows the merit of the pack ; 

 Who saw the villain seized, and dying hard 

 Without complaint, though by a hundred mouths 

 Relentless torn." 



This is rather a long-winded quotation, but I 

 have given it at length, to show that our bard en- 

 tertained tolerably correct ideas of w^hat a fox- 

 hunter ought to be. His description of the Bac- 

 chanalian orgies, which are said to be enacted in 

 the evening, may have been applicable to the dark 

 ages, but certainly does not belong to fox-hunters 

 of our day. Shooting however, is our proper 

 theme, although an old fox-hunter may be pardoned 

 this digression. 



Grouse and partridge shooting entails a consi- 

 derable expenditure of bodily exertion, particularly 

 the first, which has not been inappropriately styled 



