ENGLISH HUNTEKS AND AMERICAN TROTTERS. 43 



costly appointments of erery kind to accommodate some fifty or an hun- 

 dred couple of high-bred hounds, whose pedigrees are as well preserved as 

 those of Priam or Longwaist; and a wide district of country is reserved 

 and assigned exclusively to each hunt. Fox-hunting is there termed par 

 excellence, a princely amusement, and gentlemen of tlie moat exalted ranli 

 and largest fortune, take pride in the oiBce of "Mf-ster of the hounds" and 

 assuredly in all the wide field of manly exercises, none can compare with 

 an English fox or steeple-chase, for union of athletic vigor and dariog skill, 

 and magnificence of equitation; unless perhaps t were some splendid 

 eharge de cavaJrie, like those we used to read of, nade by the gallant 

 MiniAT at a critical moment of the battle, when he 'as wont, iu his gor- 

 geous uniform and towering plumes, to fall with his cavalry like an ava- 

 lanche upon his adversary, confounding and crushing him at a blow ! 

 Truly, it would well be worth a trip across the Atlantic, to see a single 

 " turn out" of an EngUsh hunt, all in their fair tops, buckskin smalls, and 

 scarlet coats, mounted on hunters that under Tattersall's hammer would 

 command from one to two hundred guineas ! Imagine such a field with 

 thirty couple of staunch hounds, heads up and sterns down, all in full cry, 

 and well away with their fox ! ! 



- Now, my brave youths. 



Flourish the wliip, nor spare the galling spur ; 

 But in the madness of delight, forget 

 Tour fears. Far o'er tlie rocky hUls we range, 

 And dangerous our course ; but in the brave * 

 True courage never fails." 



To indicate more strongly the prevalence of this partiality for trottmg- 

 horses, and emulation to own the fastest goer, and the number and extent 

 of associations and arrangements for this sort of trial and amusement, it 

 need only be mentioned that the " Spirit of the Times," published in New 

 York, contains lists of matches and purses, and of thousands on thousands 

 of dollars in small purses, won and lost on these performances on trotting 

 courses! These performances show that tlie excel'ence which is conceded 

 to American trotters, is not founded on a solitary achievement or very rare 

 cases, nor to be ascribed to the possession of any distinct and peculiar breed 

 of horses ; but is the natural and common fruit of that union of blood and 

 bone, which forms proverbially the desideratum in a. good hunter, with the 

 superaddition of skilful training, much practice, and artful jockeying, for 

 the trotting course. Who can doubt that if Hiram WoodiufF Were to go to 

 England, having the run of their hunting-stables, he might stlect uags 

 enough which could soon be made, under his training and consummate 

 iockeyship, to go along with Edwin Forrest and Lady Suffolk, Kipton, 

 llattler, Confidence, and the Dutchman !" 



