RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 



piloting her children on their ponies, it enables 

 the butcher to come up on his hack, the first- 

 flight man to save his horse, and above all, the 

 huntsman to kill his fox. 



The Duke of Beaufort possesses it in an extra- 

 ordinary degree. When so crippled by gout, or 

 reduced by suffering as to be unable to keep the 

 saddle over a fence, he seems, even in strange 

 countries, to see no less of the sport than in old 

 days, when he could ride into every field with his 

 hounds. And I do believe that now, in any 

 part of Gloucestershire, with ten couple of " the 

 badger-pyed" and a horn, he could go out and 

 kill his fox in a Bath-chair ! 



Perhaps, however, his may be an extreme case. 

 No man has more experience, few such a natural 

 aptitude and fondness for the sport. Lord 

 Worcester, too, like his father, has shown how an 

 educated gentleman, with abilities equal to all 

 exigencies of a high position that affords com- 

 paratively little leisure for the mere amusements 

 of life, can excel, in their own profession, men 

 who have been brought up to it from childhood, 

 whose thoughts and energies, winter and summer, 

 morning, noon, and night, are concentrated on 

 the business of the chase. 



This knack of getting to hounds, then — should 

 we consider genius or talent too strong terms to 

 use for proficiency in field sports — while a most 



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