THE CHASE IN FRANCE A FAILURE. 97 



of younger ones or " beasts of company," and perhaps 

 upon a sow with a litter, and I think on wolves. No 

 lack of the larger game. What we are most in need 

 of is that which we cannot do without ; our kennelled 

 means are utterly inadequate to match the splendid 

 denizens of the forest. Strange, that in that one 

 particular on which the whole idea is based, and 

 without which all is utterly in vain — the horse a 

 useless expenditure and the gun an ineffective bur- 

 then — a French establishment should be an entire 

 failure. Had I the command of such a forest filled 

 with such beasts of chase, the first thing I should 

 have looked for and acquired would have been an 

 ample pack of hounds ; they could have slept in a 

 barn ; the kennel, compared with them, and the stable 

 too, would have been but secondary considerations. 

 Ill-mounted, ill-stabled, unkennelled, with hounds 

 able and fit for work, a sportsman may be triumphant ; 

 without hounds, the best horses, the surest gun, and 

 the most perfect kennel, are, as far as sport goes, 

 useless. I should here remark that we were working 

 with a lot of hounds which M. d'Anchald intended 

 for the purposes of breeding more than of hunting ; 

 but by a better selection each might have been well 

 combined. 



I had now been only twice in chase of a boar, and 



* H 



