209 NOTES OF THE CHASE. BY CECIL. Extraordinary mildness of the season-Smoking in the field - Railways-The Exhi. bition-Hawking- Purchasing foxes-Stub-bred foxes-Unusual succession of sport. Tempora mutantur. How admirably does the old Latin maxim apply to the present period !--the temperature of April has been brought forward to the months of January and February. It is a precocious season. We have been accustomed at Christmas and during the aforesaid months to find the earth encased with robes of ice, and the mysteries of woodcraft for the while suspended ; but as yet we have scarcely experienced the indications of an English winter. That the season has been an exception in its general character is unquestionable-somewhat in favour of the agriculturist, as though Providence had kindly interposed to alleviate the distress occasioned to the farmer by injudicious human legislation. No period can have been more favourable for rural operations-compensating in some degree for the low price of grain and other descriptions of produce. The mildness of the season has also proved a blessing of incalculable worth to the poor and aged peasantry, to whom fuel has been comparatively not an object of account. After a glorious day, bright and genial as the month of May, a starry night has not unfrequently invoked forebodings of a frosty morn ; but when your servant, as usual, has knocked at the door of your dormitory, to arouse you from your slumbers and summon you to prepare for " the field," as half asleep and half awake you have anticipated disappointment in the announcement of a frost, to the ordinary inquiry " What sort of a morning is it?" the general reply has been, “ Cloudy, Sir ; and rather inclined for rain.” Whether it is least disagreeable to turn out on a wet or on a frosty morning, is a question which may perchance furnish subject for conflicting opinions. I think I would prefer the latter. It is rather seedy work to get wet, although only in patches; and to ride in humid garments all day, even should the weather clear up and become fine, is not altogether comfortable. Nothing but an encasement of flannel can have the effect of keeping the body in anything like a salutary degree of temperature on such occasions. There are many who profess to despise cold, whether it be the effect of rain or frost ; but time generally brings them to a different tone of expression. I remember, some years ago, a gay and gallant officer of the Guards, who distinguished himself at the time when the fire broke out at the Tower of London, by rescuing from the flames a valuable trophy, once the property of the late Duke of York, who invariably accustomed himself to a cold bath every morning as soon as he rose from his bed, however cold the weather might be. This was all very well in London, but he could not stand it in the country. Accustomed to spend a portion of the winter months in Wales, with an uncle who kept a pack of hounds, with which I have seen many a good run, he found it necessary to abandon the “ cold water" system. It happened that one of the winters was intensely severe, which induced him to don the flannel. On one occasion he called at the house of a friend of mine, with whom I was on a visit—" the wind from north-east forbiddingly keen"-he exclaimed he could not get warm after his morning's ablution, and that frequently when hunting he experienced similar unpleasant sensations ; he therefore discontinued the cold water, and substituted warm after his return home with more agreeable results. Passing the evening some time since with an ancient acquaintance, who by the way never smokes—more's the pity—and who entertains a mortal hatred for “ the fragrant weed," the conversation turned upon that subject, and a criticism on its enjoyments—from that to steam. Now, with reference to smoke-an ethereal effusion-let every man please himself, but not condemn his associates, or insult them by insinuations touching their frailties, if frailty it is to enjoy that which the earth in her bounty produces to augment our pleasures or minister to our necessities. Certain masters of hounds have gone so far as to denounce smoking in the field, under the impression that it has the effect of destroying the scent. I for one cannot acquiesce in the supposition ; nevertheless, if a master of hounds seeing me smoking a cigar were to express such an opinion, I would extinguish the weed, not in submission to his opinion, but in deference to his request, providing of course that it was made courteously. A ci-devant M.F.H. boasts that he never dirtied his mouth with the fumes of filthy tobacco : pcradventure a man may sully his mouth with that which is far more detestableFalsehood “O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath." Hypocrisy " Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. A goodly apple rotten at the heart." " Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath This viperous slander enters." Steam, or rather the productions which have arisen through its agency -the railways-were, at the first introduction of them, expected to be the harbingers of destruction to fox-hunting ; happily, however, that is not the case. Masters of hounds and huntsmen were paralyzed in the phantasms of their sleep with imaginary visions of impetuous trains sweeping along the lines at the identical moment when their darlings were crossing them, with heads and bristles up and sterns down, rushing with uncontrollable and gallant ardour on their sinking fox. Happily such misadventures are of very rare occurrence. To the London sportsman railways are of incalculable value ; to those who reside in provincial hunts they are equally acceptable. You may often meet a friend in such localities who makes your mouth water, while you are plodding over deep fallows, with an account of a run which he has seen the preceding day over grassy pastures with the Quorn or the Pytchley, accomplished by the friendly assistance of the railway. The arts, the sciences, the manners and customs of all nations, are to be paraded in London at the Great Exhibition about to take place during the approaching summer ; our races will be in full force, and the Croxton Park prize, a shield in lieu of a cup, is announced for exhibition at the Crystal Edifice, as an emblem of one of our national sports. Doubtless many specimens of equestrian and sporting appurtenances will be included in the multitude of productions ; but to attempt an illustration of the chase by inanimate representatives would convey a most imperfect idea of the reality. The season of the year will not afford the visiting stranger an opportunity of witnessing our great national sport, fox-hunting, in operation :—more the pity. With what astonishment would foreigners behold a field of well-mounted sportsmen at the covert-side ! and when the chase commenced, to see men charging gates, fences, brooks, regardless of their magnitude, would heighten their amazement. Well might they exclaim, “ These Englishmen are accustomed to deeds of daring, which render them so formidable in the battlefield.” The ancient diversion of hawking appears likely to become once more a fashionable rural pastime; it is one that ought to be sedulously cultivated. There is something vastly exciting in the wild pursuit of the hawk in chase of its victim ; and the training of the falcon is a subject of very great interest, exemplifying as it does the dominion and control which man is enabled to exercise over the wildest bird of the air. All such contrivances add to the enjoyment of country life, and cause money to be expended where it is most wanted. It is calculated to add variety to our field-sports, and moreover it is one in which our fair countrywomen may participate with the greatest propriety-a circumstance not to be disregarded. Fox-hunting is an amusement which few ladies can enjoy, and the risk which attends the chase must always be a bar to that pursuit as a general custom, from the simple fact that few are sufficiently confident in their equestrian attainments. Most unquestionably it is an enchanting sight to behold a lovely woman mounted on a handsome horse, managing him with perfect control ! yet the feelings of a man must be somewhat callous if he does not experience a sensation of nervous excitement when he watches her riding at a nasty blind ditch or stiff timber fence. There are many ladies whose moral courage is unquestionable; but that does not on all occasions exonerate them from danger, because they are the more likely to incur risks which may be productive of accidents. There is no act more unsportsmanlike, or calculated to engender feelings of annoyance, than that of purchasing foxes for the especial purpose of turning them down before a pack of harriers. When a country becomes short of foxes it may be necessary to provide cubs to turn down ; but the very fact of procuring them from any of the metropolitan stealers of birds and beasts proclaims a total disregard for the fact of how and where they are procured. As to the assurance that may accompany them of their having come from Wales or the North Pole, it amounts to nothing; moreover, there is scarcely a district in Wales, any more than in England, which is not hunted by foxhounds ; and there is surely no better apology for robbing one hunt than another. A man of affluence who resorts to a needy miscreant to procure for him surreptitiously that which he is ashamed to obtain under legitimate circumstances, is far more culpable than the man whom he encourages. How can a sportsman reconcile himself to the idea of procuring foxes from a neighbouring hunt, any more than poaching pheasants from his neighbour's preserves ? To argue that you do not take the foxes is no excuse when you employ a person to do so, whom you are well assured will obtain them from some hunt or other. The game-laws have no bearing on the transaction beyond this : the person who poaches the pheasants, if detected, may be punished under the enactments of those laws ; but he who takes the foxes can only be punished for trespass, which in most cases he escapes, from the fact of the owner or occupier of the land not feeling disposed to interfere. British sports are governed more by conyentialism than law, whether it be racing, and its concomitant betting, or fox-hunting. A man may bet to any amount he pleases, providing he have credit, and he may refuse to pay without incurring the risk of any legal interference : the community alone can interpose to restrain him from betting any more until his engagements are paid. So a man may procure foxes from a neighbouring hunt without any apprehension of legal consequences ; but in the estimation of his fellow-sportsmen, he who refuses to pay his bets, and he who buys foxes from persons whom he knows have taken them from coverts which are preserved, are both in the same category, inasmuch as this : they have both transgressed the rules which their associates have formed for the mutual order of their respective amusement. There is evidently no necessity in woodland countries to permit foxes to breed underground ; in gorse coverts earths are no doubt requisite ; but those which have been bred on stubs or cars are more wild, and always afford better runs ; when hunted they do not possess the habit of running from one head of earths to another, and seldom of hanging in covert. In woodland countries it would be well if all the earths and large rabbit-burrows were broken up : it would also save much trouble and expense in earth-stopping. A fox bred in an earth naturally resorts to such places ; it becomes his habit to seek repose in them. Having wandered during the early part of the night in search of food, he returns to his usual dormitory, a place similar, though perhaps not the identical one, in which he was bred. Thus, when pressed by hounds, he very naturally endeavours to seek refuge by going to ground; but his own well-known haunts being barred against him, he seeks an asylum in the first convenient place of the kind which he meets with. Cubs bred above ground are not very readily taken after they have attained an age when they are capable of feeding themselves ; and of course it is useless to take them before that time. Those which are bred underground are easily secured by the agency of a little dog, who, properly trained, will go into an earth and bring the cubs out, one by one, in his mouth. The sport shown by hounds this season has been unparalleled. The Quorn, the Pytchley, the Cottesmore, the Heythrop, the Warwickshireindeed, I might go through most of the countries on the list, all of which have had a succession of sport. Mr. Selby Lowndes, I am informed, has been particularly fortunate. His is an establishment which I have never as yet had an opportunity of seeing, but my desire to do so is increased by the high encomiums I have heard passed upon it. The announcement that Mr. Drake will resign his country at the termination of the present season has been received with universal regret ; who is to be his successor is not, I believe, at present determined, but there is no doubt an experienced master will come forward. PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. BY RAMROD. On the first of the last month ended pheasant and partridge shooting. To the sportsman the first of February is a day of mourning, especially to such as take delight only in the gun. The hunter has many days of his amusement to come. The courser's time is not yet limited, but hares may still be killed and cups lost and won, and the season of the votary of the turf is just beginning, but to the gunner it is the temporary suspension of animation, to be restored only at the approach of August. Not only at this time are pheasants and partridges illicit, but woodcocks and snipes become scarce, and now begin to take their departure for their native homes, at least such as are left; for since people shoot so well, and guns have been brought to such perfection, few are allowed to return from these shores. At this season such as have not been brought to bag retire to the coast, and there wait for a fair wind to carry them to the frozen shores of Norway and Sweden. It is true hares and rabbits may still be killed, but it is poor satisfaction at any time to shoot the former; and, though it is now lawful to kill them all through the year, far better was it when March, the month in which they are supposed to run mad, was the limit of the period for their destruction, for since the alteration of the law these unfortunate animals are constantly persecuted, and the poacher is for ever in pursuit of them. Only last summer did I take up nearly one hundred wires in which were caught five or six hares, and three or four I found, upon examination, were heavy with youug. Shame, shame! will cry every sportsman, that such things should be allowed. And yet, forsooth, at this very time the poacher is by some morbid minds constituted a martyr, and the gentry of England the fire which consumes him; by such conjurers it is held, property is to be invaded, lands trespassed over, women alarmed, and all as a right. And, upon the same reasoning, a body of poachers are to, I presume, if they please, “ discharge guns and utter threats under the windows of a house "* with impunity. Out upon such reasoning ! let not the minds and wills of those in authority be influenced by persons whose chief delight is to make game of the aristocracy and gentlemen of England. I fear the nonpreserving mania is on the increase ; the game laws have been violently assailed * Vide Times, January 9, 1850, |