THE FRENCH HORN. 69 



as well as sufficiently telegraph to my whippers-in 

 and brother sportsmen all that was taking place around 

 me. It was evident at once that this cumbrous 

 musical instrument was more one of amusement to 

 its owner than of aid to the hounds ; in short, I began 

 to have a shrewd suspicion (afterwards confirmed) 

 that the hound's or the pack's necessities were the 

 last things thought of, instead of being the paramount 

 consideration of all — and that from one end of the 

 French chase to the other, according to an old English 

 adage, the cart had been put before the horse, instead 

 of behind him. 



Jollily enough, and musically enough, we trotted 

 on, over very good roads leading along the little cul- 

 tivated valleys, the extensive forests crowning the sides 

 of all the uplands, and, where we could catch a view, 

 reaching for miles and miles around us. Not a large 

 tree to be seen in the w^oods, all copsewood of the 

 most varied, thick, and luxuriant description ; the 

 Crown wood cut once in thirty years, and the private 

 property every fifteen years, and all chiefly for the 

 purposes of charcoal. 



" Oh, by St. Hubert," I said to myself, "it will be 

 necessary to have a strong body of hounds here, and 

 every one of them a good ' drawer ; ' for there is no 

 getting to leeward of these woods and giving the 



