RECOLLECTIONS OF 

 A FOX-HUNTER 



CHAPTER I 



Great Equestrian Feat performed without a Horse. — The Author's 

 rapid Promotion. — Reminiscences connected with Ten Thousand 

 a year. — The " Real Original " Fox. — Account of some Morning 

 Calls upon him. — He dies a Domesticated Character. — Comparative 

 speed of Dogs and Horses. — The Author becomes M. F. H. — A 

 Maxim on Horsemanship. — Formation of a Kennel of Hounds. — 

 Latitude and Longitude of Hunting Countries. 



It would be difficult to give the exact date when my first 

 predilections for sport had their commencement, but I 

 have some faint recollection of scrambling out of my cot, 

 on to the back of an old favourite hound of my father's, 

 called Partner, which had admittance to the hall fire, 

 and giving an infantile view halloa, which nearly 

 frightened my nurse into a fit. 



From a large white rocking-horse, standing in that 

 same old oak hall, I can well remember also being trans- 

 ferred to the back of a hving white pony, with a servant 

 to lead it about the grounds. 



Such are my earliest reminiscences ; and it is strange 

 how indelibly impressed on the mind are these incidents 

 of our infantile years, when others of later date and far 

 greater importance have long since faded from our 

 memory. My father and grandfather were genuine 

 sportsmen of the olden time, particularly the former, who, 

 as heir to more than ten thousand a year landed property, 



