304 Tally ho, 



I had enjoyed, delighted with the prospect, and 

 invigorated by the fresh and healthy breeze which 

 blows across the Isle of Thanet. It may be that with 

 advancing years a rattling spin across an open country 

 suits me better than a burster across a close one ; 

 but, nevertheless, when the humour takes me, I 

 forget that it is upwards of fifty years since I first 

 began hunting, learning the rudiments of the noble 

 sport under the guidance of the father of the cele- 

 brated ^Slack Stevens," the whipper-in to Osbaldeston, 

 when that thoroughbred sportsman hunted the Quorn, 

 and I am yet able to hold my own, and feel as much 

 enjoyment as ever I did, when mounted on a nag that 

 can go the pace. 



I am quite in accord with that charming writer, 

 agreeable acquaintance, and thoroughly good sports- 

 man, ^' Whyte-Melville," who says, ^^ puerile as it may 

 seem, I doubt whether any pursuit in life afi*ords for 

 the moment such intense gratification as a quick thing 

 over a grass country, strongly enclosed, in a good 

 place, and only half-a-dozen men with the hounds/' 

 I venture to say that it will be an evil day for old 

 England when the maudlin efforts of those who now 

 make a dead set against all manly sports are success- 

 ful in putting a stop to amusements of that description. 

 (I do not think it will be just yet.) I cannot help 

 thinking that the Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals has lost "caste," which is a 

 matter of regret, by its ill-advised and abortive 

 attempts to convict persons using bearing reins, mark- 

 ing swans, etc. etc., and though no one is fonder 

 of animals, and would be more ready to repress acts of 

 wanton cruelty, I do not hold with the foolish twaddlers 



