the last finishing stroke to a classical education. Foreign travel was then chiefly confined to the nobility or the more wealthy aristocracy of the land; in the present day, persons of almost every description and denomination, young and old, rich or poor, busy or idle, literary or ignorant, are seized with the mania of visiting foreign parts. Many there are, no doubt, who go there for the laudable purpose of gratifying their curiosity amongst the monuments of Roman grandeur or the wonders of Alpine scenery; but the greater part of them are attracted by restless love of change and novelty, and thus fly from the tediousness of a domestic circle to indulge in the whirling excitement of perpetual motion. To persons of this stamp, quiet and still life are an actual torment; as one of our greatest poets has said,

"Quiet to quick bosoms is a hell!"

Accordingly, if the state of their finances and other circumstances should prevent their crossing the channel, they are determined to partake of what rambling diversion is within their reach; and they either establish themselves at one of the most frequented watering places, or seek for their amusement amongst the romantic lakes and mountains which their own country will afford.

To beings of a volatile spirit, who prey upon wild adventure, "nor can tire of aught but rest," it is fortunate that the facilities of travelling have now so much increased as to place within the power of most of them the means of gratifying their taste with little inconvenience or expense. Of all the improvements which have taken place in these wonderful times, that in travelling is perhaps the most remarkable and astonishing. In former days, travelling was difficult, hazardous, and slow. A journey from the northern parts of the kingdom to London was a serious undertaking. Such were the dangers attending it, that the alarmed traveller had, perhaps, to make his will and ensure his life before he set out. If it happened to be a large family party, the whole proceeding, and the extraordinary appearance of it, would have made quite a comic effect in the present day. A low, lumbering, broadwheeled vehicle had to be constructed of strong materials in proportion to the weight it had to carry and the difficulties it had to contend with. This ponderous and unwieldy machine had to be dragged through deep and almost impervious roads by perhaps four heavy long-tailed blacks, of little better than the cart-horse breed; these were looking exceedingly fat and sleek, but made for anything rather than speed. It would, accordingly, be many days before the object of so many hopes and fears was accomplished, and the good folks arrived in sight of the great metropolis. This happy event was hailed with no small degree of delight and congratulation, if they had been so fortunate as to have escaped not only the dangers of the road, but, what at that time was no small one, the being stopped on the king's highway, and deprived not only of their money and senses, but also of their lives, in that well-known murderous spot, then called Finchley Common.

The carriages now used on the roads, as well as the roads themselves, may be most strongly contrasted with those of former days. It is not only that there is a better method of road-making, from the admirable discovery of the Mac Adam system, but hills have been removed, and

318

A RECOLLECTION OF LEICESTERSHIRE IN 'FORTY-THREE.

Possessed of five good hunters, a fair share of animal nerve, a passionate attachment to the sport, and some eleven stone of human flesh, what should prevent me-thought I to myself, as I sat with my first glass of sherry in my hand, one evening last October-what should prevent me from migrating to the grass countries, and seeing for myself how the war is carried on among the élite. For be it known that I am a provincial-a wretched provincial-born, bred, and educated in the ploughs of the remote North; yet, like most Northerns, am I somewhat proud of my country. Many great men, both in the saddle and in St. Stephen's, in politics and in the pig-skin, has it produced. Did we not walk into the Southerns last year with "Attila," despite John Day and all his dreams? and shall we not again walk into them this year, with the stout-hearted “ Yeoman, or with Winesour, despite Mr. Goodman and his very apocryphal nag?

Sometime early in December, then, behold me domiciled in a part of England that shall be nameless: suffice it to say, that it is in the heart of the grass countries. Five good hunters in the stable, not to mention the long-tailed hack, who had, alas! fallen from the high estate of a St. Leger favourite, to the more humble task of cantering to cover with your humble servant :-my coup d'essai was with the Quorn. A nice, smart pack I thought them; and though Day be somewhat stricken in years for a huntsman, his age had not rendered him slow, even for a country in which a man must have all his wits about him to make a proper use of his hounds, and where, from the awful crowd of gentlemen, each mounted on "the best horse in England," and most of them having the two best out on the same day, it is no easy matter for a huntsman to get a fair start either for himself or his hounds. His hounds are very steady under pressure, (and they are terribly tried), quick out of cover, and without being flighty, very ready to fly, to cry, or holla.

By the way, there are two fashions-one of them, I believe, introduced by Lord Gardiner-which give to the Quornite field a peculiar appearance: I allude to the number of men who wear caps and moustaches. The former fashion, I dare say, is comfortable enough; indeed, a cap must be a better covering for the head, in going through a bullfinch, than a hat, and far less liable to be torn off, and when of good shape, it looks rather wellon a workman like his lordship; but I must say that I think it gives a "muff" a doubly muff-like appear

ance.

But the hair! God forgive the Englishman who thus disfigures his face, and turn his heart. What pleasure can a man find in thus making himself look like a Scotch terrier, Mustard, or Pepper, as his

A RECOLLECTION OF LEICESTERSHIRE IN 'FORTY-THREE. 319

hirsute adornments chance to be sandy-red, or rusty-black? I never see a moustache in the pigskin without thinking of Count Bathyany, and poor Lenny Heseltine. What a fate for a Yorkshire trainer! ridden to death by a Russian Count; for the old man never fairly recovered the shock he received at Croxton, when "that foreigneerer,' as he termed the handsome nobleman, so sadly threw away the Granby on the Shadow. Had Lenny Heseltine but lived to get Winesour over the Derby, we might have spared him. Some of these moustaches, to be sure, are the personal property of her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, being part of the killing accoutrements of Cavalry soger officers, who, however, can't well help themselves; though, for my own part, I do not see why a man should come out hunting in part of his uniform if he does not wear the whole. Even here, however, there is a distinction: a man may, perhaps, be forced to wear the abomination; but spirit of my father's! why should he dye? Rather a remarkable circumstance in military statistics was lately pointed out to me by a soger friend: all "heavies" dye, and all "lights" don't. The reason I cannot give; but the fact may be relied on. But "light" or "heavy," "plunger or cherubim," as the snobs of York's good city are wont to term Lord Cardigan's very fancy corps (in allusion, I presume, to their cherry-coloured Not-to-be-talked-ofs), 'tis an odd thing how few of them can ride out of the number who try. Though I have been hunting all my life, I have just noted on a very small scrap of paper all the military I have ever seen who shewed a notion of going to hounds. Perhaps some cause of this may be in the sort of horse they buy. I have a good deal of experience of them in the dealing way, and (take them as a body) they are the worst buyers possible; they want too much, and, as a natural consequence, get nothing. A hunter must not only be a hunter, but have a head and neck like a houri, a tail like Dan's; and then they are eternally harping upon perfect soundness, and depend quite too much on the opinion of their "regimental vet," who, in their delusion, they imagine must ex officio be a judge of a hunter. As if Sir James Clarke or Dr. Locock could give half so good an opinion on the qualifications of a prize-fighter as Mr. Gully or Johnny Broome. But jam satis soldiers: I have done with them.

66

The mighty Nimrod has so well described the Quorn field, that I fear it is almost an impertinence in any one-how much more, then, in an humble provincial!-to attempt to tread after his steps. But I think, and hope, that he has left on the ground a few ears for the industrious gleaner to pick up. Perhaps he has thrown a somewhat fictitious shade of couleur de rose over his picture described rather what it ought to be, than what it is. For instance, the "second horseman, what can sound better than his description of this functionary? But alas! Nimrod's second horseman is an animal of rare, very rare, occurrence; the creature going under that name being usually a selfconceited ass, always in the way of every one but his master. Should there be a bridle-gate at leaving the cover, some half-dozen of these fellows (who certainly have no business to be thrusting for a start) are sure to be in the thick of the crowd, putting their horses across the gateway (sure sign of a muff), and with about as much notion of using hand or whip, as I have of the use of the "Oxford Tracts." Another

320 A RECOLLECTION OF LEICESTERSHIRE IN 'FORTY-THREE.

of Nimrod's omissions is the peculiar smell emitted at a Leicestershire gateway, probably for the most part arising from the aforesaid second horsemen, and their fermenting sandwiches; which, I fancy, must acquire a highish flavour from their position all day, just over the "small of a lazy groom's back. By the way, now we are on the subject of servants, Sir Francis Goodricke (no mean authority) says that a servant ought to be a fool; as then, and then only, there is a chance of his obeying orders; and of a surety in his choice of a good groom, Sir Francis has acted most strictly up to his own dictum-such a Simple Simon is not often promoted to that situation. There are few better judges than the worthy master of the Pytchley,* but I think he is beginning to discover that a theory may be pushed too far. But now let us hark back to the Quorn hounds and their appurtenances. Every body, who is any body, of course knows their excellent master-or, more properly speaking, manager-Mr. Green, of Rollestone; under whose management, which appears to gain popularity every day, the Quorn have this year had fully their share of sport, though not much of a really brilliant character. This may partly be accounted for by the badness of the foxes. Whence that may arise, is another question. Some say

they are too well fed, and not having to travel in search of food become too fat, and have not a right knowledge of the country. However, one thing is certain: they have a sad, ringing, dodging breed in Leicestershire.

I own I was a little disappointed with it, as a country to ride over: it appears to me sadly hilly, and on some sides much more ploughed than I had anticipated, with much bad scenting land; while the sheep and bullocks that are left out to winter in the fields are a sad nuisance; for independent of the stain the former leave on the land, where there are sheep, there is a shepherd; and where a shepherd, there is a longlegged, quick-eyed shepherd's dog, perhaps with a pretty strong dash of the "grew"-as the big, wiry-haired, lurching greyhound is called in Yorkshire-a sort of fellow that enables the worthy tender of the flocks to make rabbit-pie of many a hare or leveret, and always on the watch for a dash at any moving object. Still, though a little disappointed in the country as a whole, let it not be imagined that I wish to decry it-No: I only wish that the inhabitants would keep those horrid grass-destroying ploughs out of it, and breed fewer sheep and better foxes. In one matter I am rather at issue with Nimrod, and I fear I shall be in a minority with most of my readers. I do not think that Leicestershire and Northamptonshire require so good a man (mind, I do not say horse) as many of the rougher and more enclosed provincial countries. In the first place, the fields being so much larger, you can see hounds all the better, and it does not require so quick an eye to turn with them; for be a field large or small, you must be in the same one with hounds if you mean to see them long. The size of the fields also enables a man to pick his galloping ground, and get an occasional pull at his horse, and this galloping is the rub-it is here that provincials and their nags so often fail. A man accustomed to plough is, perhaps, afraid of upsetting his horse by kicking him along

*This, of course, refers to 1843.

at first, and thus loses his start, gets shut in the crowd, and can never get in front; and the nag that may be a good, straight hunter in a strongly fenced country, and by his quick fencing make amends for a little want of pace, here is useless. You may have a rattling twenty minutes, and not have occasion to jump half-a-dozen fences.

I think, too, that the size of the fences in the grass countries is much overrated; at least, in the course of this season, I have not had occasion to jump, or seen jumped (in a run), half-a-dozen big places, barring brooks, which certainly occur pretty frequently, and usually make a sad dispersion of the field; however, a brook is generally in the first quarter of an hour-a blown fox likes water as little as a blown horse. So, reader, mind when forming your stud, take my advice: select well-bred horses. Mark well their galloping. They must not only be fast, but have that activity of action that will enable them to make use of their speed over ridge and furrow, among mole-hills, and last, not least, in dirty holding ground. As to jumping, find out whether they have good mouths, bold tempers, and will face water. Then, if endowed by nature with oblique shoulders and good hind legs, take my word for it, they must and will jump well. But manage this for your horse-that he shall take off, not sink over his fetlocks in miry clay, but if possible from some sound, fair headland, that shall serve him by its springy and elastic properties, as the jumping-board does the performer of gymnas

tic exercises.

"SPORTING REMINISCENCES."

BY A LOVER OF THE COUNTRY.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-In one of the magazines for the present month (April), I perceive an account is given of Nimrod and his writings, and some remarks are made as to the source from whence he derived his various contributions to the Old and New Sporting Magazines, as well as to other periodicals of the day. Amongst other subjects written by Nimrod, allusion is made to the papers furnished by him, called "Hunting Reminiscences." That these papers were his own genuine writing, their peculiar style and the impress of his hand, in many instances, clearly attest; but I have reason to know they were not all so, and that the hint which first gave birth to them was taken from the previous contributions made by the writer of the present communication, under the signature of "A Lover of the Country," and who afterwards assumed other signatures in several of the numbers of your magazine, his first paper being published in the August number for 1831, under the head of "Sporting Reminiscences," and which, though they commenced with anecdotes of fishing, were intended afterwards to have extended to other subjects connected with hunting and shooting; but, perceiving the hint was shortly afterwards, in