HUNTING IN THE ISLE OE THANET. 



A GOLDEN opportunity offering, I availed myself of it 

 to visit tlie Isle of Tlianet ; and, as a preparation for 

 tlie serious business of the approaching season, to 

 enjoy a gallop over the breezy downs in the vicinity 

 of Ramsgate and Margate, at the tail of the business- 

 like pack of harriers that hunt over the wide tract of 

 laud in this division of the '^ garden of England '^ of 

 which Camden, writing in the year 1695, says : — " The 

 country people and town dwellers of Kent retain the 

 spirit of that ancient nobility above the rest of the 

 English, being most ready to afford a respect and 

 kind entertainment to others/' And I am happy to 

 be able to record, from personal experience, that this 

 high reputation is fully maintained at the present 

 date ; and that the qualifications of the dwellers in 

 this pleasant isle are not a whit less admirable than 

 they were in the days of that distinguished historian, 

 kindness and hospitality being the especial features 

 in the character of those of the inhabitants that I had 

 the good fortune to fall in with. Nor is it only of the 

 dwellers in this pleasant place that I am bound to 

 speak well, for in no part of England is it possible to 

 find a healthier soil or more bracing air; and for 

 those who desire to escape from that portion of the 

 inheritance to which flesh is heir, taking the form of 

 gout^ rheumatism, or such kindred evils, I should 



