254 



THE FOX. 



policemen, whose main hope of preferment depends 

 upon the number of rascals they detect, and upon 

 the valour which they shew in capturing their 

 prey. No thieves, — no good doings for policemen. 

 A sorry state of things forsooth ! — and lately 

 rendered worse, by what is called a rural police, 

 useless and expensive. Our thieves here in York- 

 shire are quite knowing enough, to dog the 

 policeman into one village, and then to plunder 

 us in another. 



Not so with fox-hunting : — the very nature of 

 which sets gambling, and all its pernicious tricks 

 at absolute defiance. It is not confined to one 

 particular spot of ground: but, like the dancers 

 of our poet Gray, is "now pursuing, now 

 retreating — now to the north, now to the east, 

 or south, or west ; just as the quarry takes it into 

 its head to fly : and these desultory movements 

 will never suit the tactics of a gambler, or of 

 a pickpocket. There is nothing stationary in the 

 boundless realms of Nimrod. No sooner is the 

 word of command given by the huntsman, for 

 the pack to enter cover, than the whole multitude 

 of sportsmen is on the alert: not one of them 

 having the least conception where the chase will 

 end, so that, no public-house as in a horse-race, 

 will have prepared expressly, its adulterated ale for 



