From the Edinburgh Review. BRITISH FIELD SPORTS. 1. NIMROD'S Hunting Tours. 8vo. London: 1833. 2. The Chase, the Turf, and the Road. By Nimrod, with Illustrations. 8vo. London: 1837. 4. Sporting Scenes and Country Characters. By MARTINGALE. With numerous Illustrations on Wood. 8vo. London: 1840. Under such circumstances, it is no matter of surprise that books on field sports should have multiplied to an extent most embarrassing to critics like ourselves, who hold it a duty to grapple with every thing in the shape of a printed volume which is addressed to a large class of the community; and it was probably a lurking consciousness of comparative unfitness for the task, that induced our prede 3. Instructions to Young Sportsmen in all that relates to Guns and Shooting. By Lieut.-Col. P. HAW-cessors to give so discouraging a reception to the KER. 8th Edition. 8vo. London: 1838. first country gentleman who put forth a regular Beckford's avowed publication on the chase. "Thoughts on Hunting, in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend,"- -an unassuming little book which appeared in 1780-was harshly treated in the Monthly Review, (a great authority in those days,) and made the occasion for a violent diatribe against the sport. Vain, however, were the reviewer's efforts the sport was more ardently pursued than ever-the work has gone through four editions; and it has been followed by Thoughts, Hints, Observations, and Reflections, on Hunting, Shooting, Coursing, and Fishing, in all their ramifications and 5. An Encyclopædia of Rural Sports; or, a Complete Account, Historical, Practical, and Descriptive, of Hunting, Shooting, Fishing, Racing, and other Field Sports and Athletic Amusements of the present day. By DELABERE P. BLAINE, Esq. Illustrated by Six Hundred Engravings on Wood. 8vo. London: 1840. 6. The Moor and the Loch. By JOHN COLQUHOUN, TIME was when practice and theory were sworn enemies: the persons actually engaged in any given pursuit, whether of pleasure or profit, professed a sovereign contempt for book knowledge; and the praise of science, literature, or philosophy, was almost exclusively reserved for those who wrote on subjects few cared about, in a language few understood. Long after the learned had condescended to compose in the vernacular tongue, they cautiously eschewed utility; and if occasionally an author like Izaak Walton, Dame Juliana Berners, or the Duke of Newcastle, was induced to put pen to paper, on an amusement or art of the lighter order, he or she was regarded as a simple, or haply crackbrained enthusiast; and the book lay neglected in the manor-house library, until time had invested it with an artificial value for the antiquarian. How striking the contrast presented by the actual condition of the press! Which is the art, instrument, invention, or occupation, that has not been made the basis of an essay or an article? There was always reason in the roasting of eggs: there is now philosophy in a dog-kennel, and literature in a fishing-rod. Nay, we recently met with a treatise on the Art of Wearing the Hat, in which it was proved to demonstration, that any variety of expression might be obtained by attending to the following plain rules or principles: That when the hat is pulled forward over the brows, it gives the wearer a look of determination or obstinacy; when thrown back, of careless unconcern or rakishness; when stuck on one side, of impudence: the compound effects to be produced by a judicious blending of the three. If this goes on much longer, the eastern monarch offering a reward for a new pleasure, will be a faint type of the sovereigns of Albemarle Street and Paternoster Row offering a reward for a new subject. The writers will outnumber the readers; the public appetite will be palled; the golden goose will have been cut up and eaten too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many book-makers will be the ruin of the book market. JANUARY, 1842.-MUSEUM. 10 varieties. We have selected the works named at the head of this article as containing the most modern notions and improvements, and also as best calculated, for other reasons, to serve as specimens of their class. In "The Sporting Scenes and Country Characters," by Martingale, we have a series of brief descriptions, well seasoned with precepts, and occasionally enlivened by anecdotes, of every kind of rural amusement, from stag-hunting to rat-catching. In Mr. Blaine's "Encyclopædia," the entire science and history of the same topics are compressed. It is literally and faithfully what its name implies a complete round or circle of sporting knowledge-a perfect manual for the amateur, who may turn to it with equal confidence, whether he wishes to learn how to train a fox-hound in England, or to kill a giraffe in Africa. The fame of "Nimrod" is universally diffused. He has done for fox-hunting what the editor of the Almanach des Gourmands effected for gastronomy, and the veriest Cockney may derive unmingled gratification from his writings; for, independently of the descriptive powers displayed in them, they form one of the richest funds of racy anecdote we are acquainted with. This is in some measure to be attributed to the privilege tacitly accorded to him of indulging, to an unlimited extent, in personal allusion. When Mr. Willis thought proper to enliven his pages with proper names, he was universally condemned. Miss Sedgewick has not escaped censure for printing her opinions of some of her English friends; but "Nimrod" was cordially received by the chief sportsmen in the kingdom, though it was perfectly well known that he came for the express purpose of writing a description of their establishments "A chiel's amang ye takin' notes, Let us do him the justice to add, that he never abused their confidence. There are no covert sarcasms or indiscreet revealings in his "Tours;" and we remember but a single instance in which the criticism is even slightly coloured by irritability or pique. In speaking of the York and Ainsty hounds, he has occasion to mention the huntsman, Mr. Naylor, and delivers himself thus: "In the field, though I had not much means of judging of him, I do not think highly of Naylor as a SPIRIT OF MAG. 2 66 across a country at "Mr. Stubbs' pace"-that master of fox-hounds, who seldom went faster than nine miles an hour, and never took a fence, yet almost invariably contrived to make his appearance at the end of the run. We are therefore very far from being pure theorists, and can understand, if not fully sympathize with, the enthusiasm which leads some of the authors before us to rank the reputation of a hard rider or a first-rate shot, amongst the noblest objects of youthful ambition; but the habitual tone of our minds leads us to value their books less for the prac tical knowledge they have accumulated for the tyro, and the inspiriting exhortations they address to him, than for the traits of character, the illustrations of natural history, the curious subjects of general speculation, that abound in them; and perhaps our peculiar position in this respect may not prove a disadvantage upon the whole. It is a remarkable fact, that the best elementary books (Mrs. Marcett's, for example) have been composed by persons who possessed little or no prior acquaintance with the sub huntsman-certainly not so highly as he thinks of How often has one great man been thus prejudiced against another by the indiscretion of an acquaintance in repeating some hasty expression of contempt or indifference, uttered probably by the offending party, in the hope of weakening by anticipation the very judgment he affected to despise! and how curiously does our wounded self-love neutralize our noblest efforts at impartiality! Nimrod's candour in quoting the ground of quarrel is beyond all praise; but it is impossible not to see that he must have gone out in a very bad humour for appreciating Mr. Naylor's performances; and we suspect that even Jack Wilson, the whipper-in, will fare the worse with posterity in consequence of the flippant observation of his chief, Nearly the same observation is reported to have fallen from the lips of old Sergeant Maynard a century and a half ago. "Young man,' was his rebuke to a flippant competitor at the bar, "I have forgotten more law than you ever knew." In fact, the saying, mutatis mutandis, has been attributed to several distinguished characters besides the director of “York and Ainsty hounds." As to the rest upon our list-Colonel Hawker expounds the whole rationale of Shooting with clearness, fulness, and vivacity; whilst Mr. Colquhoun, with his freshness of description and instructive minuteness of detail, bears us off to the mountains, prepared for every change of weather or variety of country that may turn up. The treatise on Shooting, by the author of "The Oakleigh Sporting Code," is written upon a very comprehensive plan, and beautifully illustrated. Its companion on Angling is one of the most interesting, instructive, and agreeable treatises on the "gentle art" that exists in our language; and will probably be noticed at greater length in a future article. The reason is plain. They are under no temptation to be pedantic-they occupy the same point of view as the general reader-they take nothing for granted-and their own fresh impressions afford an excellent test for ascertaining what is most likely to prove entertaining or instructive to the mass. Without, therefore, going quite the length of the late Mr. Mill, the very able historian of British India, who contends that a man will write better about a country for having never seen it-we will venture to affirm, that a man will not write the worse about fox-hunting, (which, considering the space it occupies in these publications, must claim our chief attention,) for having devoted his leisure hours to other objects than the chase. An unsophisticated observer, on his first visit to a hunting country, must instantly be struck by the magnificence of the establishments, as well as by the taste, inventive ingenuity, and scientific knowledge displayed in them-the kennels and stables built with far more regard to health and comfort than the dwelling-houses-the dogs and horses dieted according to the established principles of art-more pains taken with the education of a fox-hound than with that of a country gentleman fifty years ago, and as many delicate attentions lavished on a sick hunter by a nursing groom, as a lady of quality would receive from Sir Henry Halford or her waiting-maid. Then, how painfully would the sense of his own insignificance be forced upon him by the absorbing character of the pursuit-the complete devotion of all around him to the master passion-the entire subservience of thoughts, feelings, habits, senses, to the presiding influence or genius of the place! 66 Pray, my lord," said Nimrod to the present Duke of Cleveland, "is not your kennel here very near the house? Does not the savour of the boiler sometimes find its way into the drawing-room ?"—" It may," replied his lordship, "but we are all too well bred for fox-hunting to mind that." Woe indeed to the wife, sister, or daughter, who betrays any feminine weakness in this respect. "I was once present," says Nimrod, "when an anecdote was told of It may be as well to state fairly at the outset, that a gentleman having purchased a pack of fox-hounds; we intend to deal with these books as Reviewers, but, on their arrival at his kennel, his wife went into not as sportsmen; for, to say the truth, we have mis- fits, in which she continued till the hounds were givings whether our practical experience would prove sent back again to their original owner."-"If my sufficient to justify us in assuming the tone and bear-wife had done so," said Mr. Corbet, "I would never ing of the knowing ones. We have occasionally have kissed her again till she took off her nightcap, risked our lives in a battue, walked ourselves to a and cried Tally-ho." downright stand-still across a moor, and cantered Lady Londonderry, it seems, partakes a little of the same prejudice, and she is thus censured by a sporting yeoman of the neighbourhood: “Indeed, I am very angry with his lordship, and I told my lady so the other day. She can't bear the ery of dogs, she says. Oh, fie! her father was as good a sportsman as ever followed a hound. What! Sir Harry Vane Tempest's daughter not bear the cry of dogs! Oh, fie! But this comes of all your fine London work. It didn't use to be so. I am very angry at them. I don't think I shall ever go to dine at Wynyard Park again. The last time I was there, they put me into a room that smoked like a limekiln; but I should not have minded that if they didn't kill the foxes." We trust the following example will not be lost on such wives of fox-hunters as are fortunate (or, according to Mrs. Gore, unfortunate) enough to be possessed of pin-money: A few years back, when the country was depressed, and rents came in slowly, Mr. Ward (of Hampshire) told his lady he feared he must give up his hounds. Oh no! said she, don't do so, the times perhaps may mend. Going shortly afterwards to his bankers, he found the sum of a thousand pounds placed to his credit by "a friend to fox-hunting." This friend to fox-hunting was Mrs. Ward, and the sum was paid out of her private purse. Now for the application-"Hear this, ye married ladies, and do not forget the moral! If you wish to retain the affections of your husbands, encourage, but do not thwart his favourite pursuits. Your beauty may fade in his eye; your charms may pall upon the sense; but such conduct as this can only be forgotten in the grave." Far be it from us to detract from the merit of this act. It is really a very pleasing trait of affection and delicacy. But the ladies are hardly to be blamed for disliking fox-hunting, if we consider how completely its more ardent votaries contrive to unfit themselves for society. Although the times are gone when a bout of hard drinking was the inevitable appendix to a good run, the fatigue is overwhelming, and a man who has been in the saddle ten or twelve hours, is seldom qualified to appear to much advantage in the drawing-room "He also had a quality uncommon To early risers after a long chaseA quality agreeable to woman, When her soft liquid words run on apace, Who likes a listener, whether saint or sinnerHe did not fall asleep just after dinner." Modern sportsmen cannot be accused of early rising, but they manage to crowd twice as much excitement and exhaustion into a given period as their progenitors. The best, perhaps only, way by which the female members of the family can preserve their empire under such circumstances, is to take the field in their own proper persons; and there are no want of examples to justify the step, as one of Nimrod's graphic sketches will make clear. The grand drawing-room at Raby Castle is the scene: "The door opened with an announcement of 'Mr. Hodgson, my lord,' and in walked Tommy Hodgson, (the groom,) presenting a full front to his master. No soldier on parade could present a better. No gate-post was ever straighter; no Shakspeare's apothecary was leaner: and the succession of lines from the forehead to the chin, too plainly showed * Nimrod's Hunting Tours. that age had traced his cruel way over Tommy's honest face. Not a word escaped him until the marquis took out his card (the list of hunters fit for work alogue began. It was a rare specimen of the laconic: presented daily) out of his pocket, and then the diIs Moses sound? Yes, my lord. I shall ride himAlso Bergami?-Yes, my lord. Dick, Swing?— Yes, my lord. Will, Salopian?-Yes, my lord. Lady Cleveland, Raby?—Yes, my lord. Edward, the Parson?-Yes, my lord. Lady Arabella, the Duchess?-Yes, my lord. George, Obadiah ?—Yes, my lord. That's all? Yes, my lord. (Exit Tommy.)" Equally characteristic, though illustrative of another point, is the breakfast-room scene: "It so happened that we were all-and a pretty large party-seated at the breakfast table when Lord Darlington (the present Duke of Cleveland) made his appearance. Next to the usual inquiries after his lordship's health, the question was asked by two or three at once, have you heard how Will is? (the whipper-in, who had had a bad fall the day before.) I have been to his bedside,' said Lord D.; "he has had a restless night, nevertheless I hope he will do well; but he made me smile when he said he had no doubt but he should be able to go out with the hounds on Wednesday. He also inquired after Lightning's eyes, and how Rufus and Mortimer had fed.' and accomplishments, he is one of the most remarkConsidering the Duke's acknowledged cultivation able living instances of the passion. During some years he hunted his own hounds regularly six days in the week. He had a change of clothes at all the principal inns within his hunt, to the nearest of which he always repaired after his sport was over; and for the evening, a small field-piece at the lodge of putting himself into a chaise and four, ready dressed his park announced his approach to the castle, and, by the time he arrived, dinner was upon the table. we quite agree with Nimrod, more strongly exemThe ruling passion "strong in death" was never, plified than in Mr. T. Shafto, a distinguished follower of the Raby hounds. He was on his way to Ireland with a sporting friend, when the captain of the vessel came down to their cabin and informed them that all hope was over. Instead of giving vent to the ordinary exclamations of terror, he heaved a deep sigh, and thus apostrophized his companion in distress. "I say, Bob, no more Uckenby whin,” (a favourite covert within the hunt.) Were we set, however, to maintain the thesis, that man is naturally a hunting animal, we should not look for illustrations amongst the aristocracy, with whom want of occupation or excitement will afford a satisfactory solution of the problem. Our chief examples should be selected from amongst the lower classes; and we would appeal to Hastings the Cheltenham tailor, and Osbaldistone (not "the squire," but) the attorney's clerk, both commemorated by Mr. Blaine. Of Hastings, he speaks as follows: "This hero of a shopboard in Cheltenham is, or was, so passionately fond of the hounds, that he was in the habit of constantly starting on foot from the kennel to cover with Lord Segrave's hounds, quite regardless of distance; but what is still more extraordinary, from his fine wind and speed, as well as perfect knowledge of the country, and the line which the foxes usually take, he has very seldom been known to be many minutes in making his appear the gentleman to whom a facetious friend, after witnessing his appearance in the pulpit, remarked, “I like you better in bottle than in wood." ance at the conclusion of the best runs. He has | look like boiled gooseberries!'" Probably this was hunted thus five days a-week on foot with Lord Segrave, and has met the Duke of Beaufort's hounds on the sixth. On one occasion he walked from Cheltenham to Berkley, (twenty-six miles,) and found the hounds gone to Haywood, ten miles further, to which he proceeded: he was rather late, but saw a good run nevertheless! It appears, however, that the sporting tailor is not at home on horseback; otherwise opportunities must have occurred of enlisting himself in the service of the field. Indeed, we are told that Lord Segrave more than once offered him a good situation as earth-stopper; but his answer was in true unison with the love of the actual chase, that, as he could not stop earths a-nights and hunt a-days too, he must decline the offer.'" Peregrine Langton, the uncle of Dr. Johnson's well-known friend, Bennet Langton, lived genteelly, keeping two maids, two men in livery, a carriage, and three horses, on two hundred pounds a-year. Osbaldistone, the attorney's clerk, mentioned by Mr. Blaine, lived respectably in London, keeping himself, a family of half a dozen children, six couple of hounds, and two horses, on sixty The Craven country boasts, or boasted (for these are "auld warld" stories, and the race is fast dying out) a first-rate specimen of the class in the Rev. F. F. Kentbury, about four miles from Hungerford, of "This gentleman resides (1822) in the village of which place he is rector; and proved himself so good in the time of our troubles, when fox-hunting, as well a subject, and such a useful member of society, that in danger, he stepped manfully forth, and was inas every other valuable institution in the country, was vested by his sovereign with martial as well as clerical authority-having the command of a corps of Berks yeomanry. On being reviewed by the king (George III.) when on duty at Windsor, his majesty was pleased to observe, that Colonel Fowle was not only one of his best cavalry officers, but one of the best preachers, one of the best shots, and one of the best riders to hounds in his dominions. Who would not be proud of such a compliment from such a man?" * Blackstone states that it is to this day a branch of the king's prerogative, at the death of every Bishop, to have his kennel of hounds, or a compensation in lieu thereof. This proves that hunting was once recognized as a strictly episcopal amusement, and it is consequently no matter of surprise that a taste for it is not at once expelled by the mitre. "To explain this seeming impossibility," says the authority on which Mr. Blaine relies, "it should be observed that, after the expiration of the office hours, Mr. Osbaldistone acted as an accomptant for the butchers of Clare market, who paid him in offal; the choicest morsels of which he selected for himself and family, and with the rest he fed his hounds, which were kept in the garret. His horses were lodged in the cellar, and fed on grains from a neighbouring "It is well known," says Nimrod, "that (though brew-house, and on damaged corn, with which he before I was born) a certain high-bred dignitary of was supplied by a corn chandler, whose books he the church kept a pack of fox-hounds, and was one kept in order, once or twice a-week. In the season of the best sportsmen of his day. When, however, he hunted, and by giving a hare now and then to the the mitre adorned his brow, the hounds were transfarmers over whose grounds he sported, he secured ferred to his noble brother, who continued them in their good-will and permission; and several gentle- great style; but the bishop did not attend them. men, struck with the extraordinary economical mode Taking a ride, however, one day in a country in of his hunting arrangements, which were generally which he thought it not unlikely he might see someknown, likewise winked at his going over their thing of them, he met the fox. The hounds were manors. This Nimrodian was the younger son of a at fault; when, putting his finger under his wig, gentleman of good family, but small fortune, in the his lordship gave one of his beautiful view-halloos. north of England; and having imprudently married" Hark, halloo!" said one of the field. The huntsone of his father's servants, was turned out of doors with no other fortune than a southern hound big with pup, whose offspring from that time became a source of amusement to him." man listened, and the halloo was repeated. "That will do," said he, knowing his own master's voice, "That's gospel, by G—!” Nimrod draws a just distinction between a clergyIt is impossible not to be struck by the distin-man who hunts, and a hunting clergyman; yet he guished place accorded to the clergy of the Established Church in the annals of fox-hunting. Thus, in the Duke of Cleveland's published diary, we find this entry; "I cannot omit to mention that the Rev. J. M., [the name at full length,] shone as conspicuously this day on his gray mare as in the pulpit, and was alone with the hounds over Ainderby moors at the last, near Thornhill's willow-bed." Nimrod pays this handsome tribute to the merits of another clerical hero: "The vicar of P. is no humbug. He sings a hunting song to his parishioners, tells them a good story at his tithe-feast, and gives them the best his house affords. His invitation to Sir Bellingham and myself, for the next time the hounds came that way, was rather unique. My claret,' said he, 'is of the finest vintage; and you will drink enough of it, it will make your eyes if * See the details in Mr. Crocker's edition of Boswell's Johnson, vol. ii., Appendix. does not give up the latter. "In my travels through life, I have heard some sneers against hunting parsons; but my idea is this, a hunting parson makes friends, a shooting parson makes enemies. A clerical friend of mine being disappointed at the death of a relation, said he should give up hunting and sell his horses. Do no such thing,' said a certain noble relation very high in the sporting world, stick to the brush, and it will get you a living.' And so it did." Fielding's Parson Supple got a living by being always at hand to fetch Squire Watson's tobaccobox or get drunk with him; yet we should hardly recommend a young friend, fresh from ordination, to adopt this particular mode of obtaining preferment. The logic of the first proposition is also questionable. Does it follow that a non-hunting parson must be a shooting one? * Hunting Tour, p. 138. The medical profession furnishes its quota of enthusiasts, and many highly honourable traits are recorded of them. The following for example:-A medical gentleman, by the name of Hansted, residing near Newbury, ordered his gardener to set a trap for some vermin that infested his garden. As ill luck would have it, a fox was found in it in the morning with his leg broken. On being taken to the doctor he exclaimed, "Why did you not call me up in the night, that I might have set the leg?" Better late than never: he did set the leg: the fox recovered; and was killed in due form, after a capital run. We presume it is hardly necessary to state, that our southern neighbours deny the orthodoxy of the rule of the chase, as laid down by Rhoderic Dhu: "Though space and law the stag we lend, been to render the sport more and more inaccessible Another "quick thing" is mentioned by Nimrod. He tells us that the horse he rode had just been winning hunter stakes-there were no impracticable fences in the way-and he only lost two or three mi A farmer within the limits of Mr. Farquharson's hant being accused of killing a fox, was not allowed to dine at the farmer's ordinary until he had esta-nutes in getting round a wall; yet he never caught blished his innocence. There are two perfectly distinct principles on which fox-hunting is upheld by its votaries; independently of its use in clearing the country of vermin, which is rendered somewhat problematical by the fact just mentioned. The one is its levelling tendency. "It is a sort of Saturnalian amusement, (says Nimrod,) in which all ranks and privileges are set aside; and he that has the best horse and the best nerve takes the precedence for the day. A butcher's boy, upon a pony, may throw the dirt in the face of the first duke in the kingdom. This, though little thought of, is one of the many advantages arising from a land of liberty." The other was expounded by Sir Hussey (now Lord) Vivian, during the game-law debate: "I own I am proud of sporting; and the greatest commander the world ever had, has declared that he found the men who followed the hounds brave and valiant soldiers." This doctrine was much more pointedly expressed by an old writer: "Who is so likely to gain a rampart, or mount an intrenchment, as he whose long practice hath been scaling the fortifications of meadows and inclosures? who so proper to manage his horse with address and intrepidity in time of action, as he whose trade and occupation are leaping over five-bar gates, hedges, and stone-walls? Habit and experience qualify the fox-hunter for the sap or for the storm, to unkennel or to pursue: long custom hath made him acquainted with all sorts of ground, with hills and valleys, morasses and deserts, streights and precipices; hath enabled him to excel in march or forage, in ambush or surprise, in attack or retreat. How common was it for champions like these to give terror to a squadron, or to make lanes among legions of Frenchmen! With what health and vigour did they then return home to the arms of their consorts! What hopeful, rosy, jolly branches were seen round their tables! What martial heroes, inheritors of their virtues and their valour, did they leave to their country!" Whatever weight might have been due to either or both of these lines of argument originally, it seems clear that modern fox-hunters will soon be driven to rest their case almost exclusively upon the last; for the tendency of all the recent changes, or improvements as they are termed, undoubtedly has sight of the pack till he ascended a rising ground, from which he could just see them more than a mile a-head, running into their fox. When Shaw, the huntsman, came up, he pulled out his watch, and exclaimed, "Beat two miles in twenty-two minutes by G-!" When thus conducted, fox-hunting is little better than a steeple chase; and a noble earl, highly distinguished in the sporting world, once naïvely owned that he thought the hounds "a great bore;" which reminds us of the remark of a well-known habitué of the opera-who attended it solely to gossip and pay visits-that it might be greatly improved by leaving out the singing. The hounds also seem to be of opinion, that, if nothing were wanted but a gallop across country, they could dispense with foxes; for Mr. Corbet's pack, a very celebrated one, ran a cur dog an hour, best pace, and killed him." Nimrod assures us that this was not at all discreditable to them. 66 It is probably with a view to the more essential change that the point of honour has been varied. The best man at present is he who goes best through the first part of the run; and in the regular hunting countries the successful competitor would as soon think of asking for the huntsman's scalp as for the brush. "I once did see, and in one of the crack countries," says Nimrod, "a man ride over a fence into the middle of hounds, as they were in the act of worrying their fox; and on the owner of them asking him why he did so, he replied that he wanted the brush." "You shall have the brush, sir," said the master of the pack, "and let it serve you for the rest of your life. Take off that red coat when you get home, and never come a-hunting again." To understand the degree of nerve required by a hard rider, it is necessary to bear in mind the nature of the country (Leicestershire) in which the chief performers have distinguished themselves. It abounds in brooks, and has the ordinary complement of rails, stiles, and gates; but the ox and bulfinch fences are its peculiar distinctions. The ox fence consists of, first, a wide ditch, then a sturdy blackthorn hedge, and, at least two yards beyond that, a strong rail, about four feet high. The bulfinch fence is a quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years' growth, with a ditch on one side or the other, and so high and strong that horses cannot clear it. The sportsman charging this |