limited to the finding of one fox, we start with an expense of five pounds, as the smallest tax upon the day, independent of all the inevitable wear and tear." This, however, is a metropolitan county; and all luxuries are dear about London.

Huntingdonshire, and the counties that run up towards "The Wash," have one of those noble private establishments, of which England may well be proud, in the shape of Lord Fitzwilliam's splendid pack, with the veteran Seabright at its head, a first-rate horseman and huntsman. Still we believe Lord Fitzwilliam's is a less visited establishment than almost any going, certainly than any on such a scale and with such pretensions. Cambridge men talk of them, and toast them; but Seabright generally keeps too wide of the seat of learning to allow of their doing much more. These days are sometimes recalled in after life by the turning up of some such document as the following (unreceipted perhaps):

Kent-the garden of England-is only in a "so so" way, we fear, in the hunting line. We remember Mr. Oxendon, now Sir Henry, with as pretty a turn out, on a small scale, as ever we looked at. His forte was bitches-spayed bitches; and he certainly had as neat a lot as ever were seen. Would that he had stuck to the brush, and left the turf alone! Those Epsom downs have been the "ruin of many a good cry," as they say of the increased speed of hounds. Mr. Brockman succeeded Sir Henry; and a committee had the Tickham the last time we heard of them-rather an awkward name for a pack.

Mr. Dyke, of Lullingstone Castle, in the northern part of the county, long had a neat pack of dwarf foxhounds, which he increased in size on the late Colonel Joliffe resigning his Surrey country to the Old Surrey, and the consequent withdrawal of the latter pack from their Kent district; but they were not of many seasons continuance under their new form.

Lincolnshire has fared better than its more aspiring neighbour Leicestershire. Lord Yarborough's hounds have hunted the northern part of the county for above one hundred and sixty years. His lordship is perhaps the most superbly appointed and finest turn out altogether in England. The hounds are every one of them perfect pictures, and the horses the pick of this great breeding county. They are chiefly, if not entirely, supplied by his lordship's numerous and opulent tenantry. The servants are said to be allowed two scarlet coats each season, and have men to clean their leather breeches for them. It was in this, and the neighbouring Holderness country, that the hideous fishermen's boots were first introduced. Caps, now becoming so common, and, generally speaking, so unbecoming, have long been worn in Lord Yarborough's hunts, sometimes without the adjunct of the scarlet coat.

Leicestershire, as we said before, has seen the ups and downs of life. The memory of man runneth not to the time when Mr. Meynell took possession of this choice region of hunting, but he occupied it into the beginning of the present century. The late Lord Sefton, we believe, succeeded him, but our business is more with modern times.

Twenty years ago Mr. Osbaldeston was master of the Quorn hounds; he was succeeded by Lord Southampton, who was followed by Sir Harry Goodricke, who was replaced by Mr. Errington, brother of Sir Massey Stanley, after whom came Lord Suffield, who was quickly followed by Mr. Hodgson, who gave way to the present master, Mr. Green, the first local master, we believe, these hounds have had; Mr. Meynell, who hunted it so long, had not an acre of land in the county.

Sir Richard Sutton, after a long and magnificent occupation of the middle part of the county of Lincoln, bought the late Earl of Lonsdale's hounds, and took Rutlandshire on the retirement of his lordship; and Lord Henry Bentinck, with the Rufford, hunts five and sometimes six days a week.

"The South Wold" country to the "south east" has not been so fortunate in the permanency of its masterships, and is generally in the market every second or third season.

Middlesex may now, we think, be scratched out of the list of "hunting countries," unless Mr. Ackerman takes it as an appendage to the Eclipse Sporting Gallery.

Monmouthshire we know nothing about. It seems to have had two packs in Col. Cook's time-" The Llangibby, Mr. Williams," and "Mr. Morgan's." We hope they are there still.

Northamptonshire made a goodly appearace on paper in Colonel Cook's days. We say on paper, because several packs are put in whose head quarters were in other countries, but which had coverts on the various margins of this midland sporting shire. The Pytchley, however, have always been to Northamptonshire what the Quorn have to Leicestershire; and surely if the Leicestershire men point with pride to their great founder, Hugo Meynell, the Northamptonshire men may do the same by their great John Warde.-John Warde, fifty-seven years master of fox-hounds.

The Duke of Grafton, Lord Fitzwilliam, and the late Sir Thomas Mostyn, all figure in the Northamptonshire list as hunting the country; but, as we said before, the " Pytchley" is the real pack.

Sir Charles Knightley and Lord Spencer, then Lord Althorpe, succeeded Mr. Warde, if we mistake not; after them came the renowned John Musters, then the equally renowned Mr. Osbaldeston, then Mr. Wilkins, then Mr. Payne, then Lord Chesterfield, then Mr. Smith (Craven Smith), then Sir Holyoake Goodricke, and now for a second time that justly popular native sportsman Mr. Payne. Let the Northamptonshire squires do by him what they have never done by any foreign master-support him well, and show that it has been the man, not the money, they looked to.

Northumberland seems to go on smoothly and prosperously; Sir M. W. Ridley in Col. Cook's time-Sir M. W. Ridley at the present

day. The difference seems to be that formerly they hunted twice a week, now they hunt four times. Lord Elcho, again, in the north, hunts five days a week, and Mr. Watson, occupying a country between the two, hunts twice a week.

Nottinghamshire also continues to flourish under Mr. Foljambe, one of the most extensive and best breeders of hounds of the day, but ill health, we fear, is to close his career with the present season.

Oxfordshire has continued steadily in the hands of Mr. Drake since the secession of Sir Thomas Mostyn, and after various changes since the late Duke of Beaufort resigned the Heythrop country; it is now in the hands of Lord Redesdale; Lord Radnor's late pack, we believe, is in the hands of a committee.

Rutlandshire we have spoken of, except in as far as the Duke of Rutland's princely establishment is concerned, which, though located in Rutlandshire, is, in point of operations, a Leicestershire pack. It is still, we believe, under the management of Lord Forester.

The S.'s are all in a weakly way. Shropshire, Somersetshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, and Sussex have all had their many changes. Sir Bellingham Graham, who formerly headed the Shropshire list, has long been off the roll of masters of hounds; so has Mr. Boycott, also Mr. Walter Gifford; Sir Thomas Boughey resigned for want of foxes; Sir Rowland Hill too has disappeared; also Mr. Wickstead; and Sir Richard Puleston and Mr. Mytton are no more. The Albrighton country, as it is called, from Eccleshall to Bromsgrove, and across from Wellington and Wenlock to Cannock and Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, is now hunted by Mr. Holyoake; besides which there is the united pack (bespeaking a reduction) at Church Stretton, in Shropshire; also, we believe, Mr. Eyton's, of the Mount, near Wellington.

Somersetshire has had many changes-Captain Luttrell, Mr. Tatchell, Mr. Hall, and others; but Mr. Horlock has been steady to his part of the country, having now hunted it about 20 years, ever since he bought Mr. Warde's hounds, and removed from the Craven country to the neighbourhood of Bath.

Staffordshire has seen Mr. Wicksted, Mr. Chadwick, and Lord Anson, now Lord Lichfield. Mr. Meynell Ingram, grandson of the great Meynell, is still the lord paramount of that county-hunting with Staffordshire, part of Shropshire.

Carrington Nunn, Esq., was lately presented with a splendid service of plate, as a testimony of the approbation of the liberal and sportsmanlike manner in which he has hunted the Essex and Suffolk country for twenty-one years.

The old Surrey has long flourished in Surrey, also the Union in the Dorking district of the county-Dorking fowls ought to be a temptation to foxes.

Sussex has had its two Wyndhams, and three or four masters to the East Sussex-Major Carter, Mr. Craven, and Captain Green.

Warwickshire saw its best days before Leamington sprung up. Mr. Corbett was the "Meynell," or " John Warde" of that countynor should Lord Middleton be forgotten. Since his lordship, they have had Mr. Hay, of Dunse Castle, in Berwickshire; Mr. Russell,

a member of the Bedford family; Mr. Thornhill; a committee of three; and now Mr. Barnard.

Wiltshire, with its vale of white horse, has shown first-rate sport. The "old Berkeley," with their yellow coats, hunted it at one time; the late Mr. Codrington, of Wraughton, the head of one of the most sporting and popular families in the kingdom, the late lamented Earl of Kintore, the present Earl Ducie, and now Lord Gifford, has it with a slice of Gloucestershire up to Hazelwood, near Minchampton, across by Northleach and Burford. The kennels are near Cirencester. His lordship promises well, wonderfully for a law lord's son.

Worcestershire, we fear, is rather delicate. There was an account in the paper the other day of a meeting of the members, for the purpose of taking into consideration the ways and means of the hunt. It was resolved to adopt "a systematic plan of soliciting subscriptions all over the country." It is a pity to make these sort of dilemmas too public.

We now close with Yorkshire. Lord Harewood still stands at the head of the tree, treading in the footsteps of his venerable father, who may be almost said to have died in the saddle. Sir Tatton Sykes too is there in propria persona. The York and Ainsty, after some changes, remain; also the Badsworth, with Lord Hawke for master instead of Mr. Petre. The Holderness, we believe, have been carried on by a committee since Mr. Hodgson took the Quorn; and Mr. Milbanke occupies the district formerly hunted by the Duke of Cleveland. The Hurworth have been materially improved since they came into the hands of the present Mr. Wilkinson, and "Sinnington hoont" is still to the fore. To this last on the list we will append the following account, given by Mr. Vyner, in his very able work, "Notitia Venatica."

"How long it is since hunt clubs were first established," says he, we have no authority; but it was about the middle of the last century that matters appertaining to hunting were recognized with other subjects of county interest. The hunt which lays claim to the greatest antiquity, as I have been credibly informed, although the hounds are little better than a trencher-fed pack, the country round composed of everlasting dingles, woods, and precipices, and the thing chiefly supported by the yeomanry of the country, is the Sinnington, in Yorkshire; and amongst other peculiarities, characteristic of this ancient club, the huntsman is always retained quite as much on account of his warbling qualifications as his knowledge of the chase; and unless he has Bright Phoebus,' Old Towler,' and the Grey eye of morning,' with a few other choice old ballads ready at command, he is no man for Sinnington hoont." "

Let us not, however, be supposed to have copied the foregoing for the purpose of disparaging the establishment; on the contrary, it is the vivid picture it draws of primitive country life that has recommended it to our notice. Who, after reading it, will doubt that there is as much real enjoyment, and as good spirit in this rough and ready establishment, as in the best of the many well-appointed packs we have passed in review? Moreover, it brings us back to the consideration-whether the expenses of hunting establishments have not

materially injured the chase. No one who has seen any of the great "turns out" of the day, can fail to have thought that there was an excess of splendour, an over-doing of the thing, more calculated to impose by numbers and array, than to promote the legitimate hardy warfare of hunting. Since coaches and six, with their phalanxes of outriders, have gone out of fashion, it has become more the fashion to create an impression by an overwhelming attendance of scarlet-coated servants with hounds; many of these are fellows who can hardly hit a hound, but still they tell upon the uninitiated as well as Smith, or Seabright, or Shirley, or Long, or any of them. We always regret to see the thing overdone, for even if the proprietor is too affluent to be injured by such a retinue himself, still the comparison operates unfavourably by those with smaller means, and drives many a good master of hounds out of the field. Perhaps there are few places more thankless and less enviable than a mastership of hounds. Every man who gives his five pounds thinks himself qualified to find fault; indeed many who do not even give their five pounds usurp the privilege, and fault-finding is a talent of the easiest acquirement.

The difficulty of keeping up subscription packs is becoming every day more apparent. Unless some great man puts his name down for about half the expense, leaving the other half to be screwed out of the country, they seldom have much chance of a lengthened existence. Those who live in countries hunted by great men are seldom sensible of the advantage until they lose it. We have always advocated a club subscription, even in countries hunted by the most affluent. It gives each subscriber a personal interest in the thing-identifies him with the establishment-makes him the delegate, as it were, of the hunt in his district; and when such untoward events as the withdrawal of the rich man from the country occurs, these clubs form a nucleus, wherein they may find another.

It is up-hill work attempting to hunt a country by the subscriptions the generality of people afford, unless there is a good nest-egg by way of beginning. Were we taking a country, we would almost prefer trying to cut down expenses, to attempting to raise the ways and means out of reluctant payers.

Advertising hounds has been a great cause of increased expenditure. An advertisement is a sort of proclamation of superiorityan invitation to the world at large to come and inspect an establishment. Strangers come, ignorant alike of situation and circumstance, but who, having seen a Duke of this's, or my Lord that's, pronounce yours very inferior, and perhaps proclaim it on paper, in the shape of "A day with the Shabby-scrub hounds!" Our forefathers never troubled advertisements; indeed, within the period of our recollection, the papers used to charge advertisement duty and expenses upon them-a most effectual way of stopping such display.

At the close of one day's hunting our forefathers fixed the next, and cards were sent to absent members, or neighbours communicated with each other. This had many advantages. In the first place, it enabled them to change their day, either before or on the morning of hunting, if the weather was unfavourable, or circumstances rendered a change