The North Warwickshire, 249 



Rugby before I liad worn out my welcome, or used up 

 all my proffered mounts, and it required but little 

 pressure to exact a promise that I would repeat my 

 visit, wliicli, under the happy circumstances of my 

 sojourn in this part of the shires, was, I think, a wise 

 decision to come to. Having during the first part of 

 the season visited the Devon and Somerset stag- 

 hounds, and galloped over the Quantock Hills ; ridden 

 with the Royal Buckhounds in Windsor Forest ; 

 hunted the wily fox and the timid hare over the South- 

 downs; had a merry spin or two with the Belvoir, 

 several rattlers with the Quorn, and some out-and-out 

 clinkers with the Cottesmore — I can . afl&rm that 

 never was hunting more popular than at the present 

 time j that there were never harder riders to be seen, 

 or better horses to carry them ; and that, in my 

 opinion, there is little fear at present of Englishmen 

 giving up this manliest of amusements, notwithstand- 

 ing the maudlin effusions which sometimes appear in 

 print by persons who '^compound for sins they are 

 inclined to, by damning those they have no mind to/^ 



