In this sport, a man must have a total unconcern about his neck, and if he is not killed in training, he forms a character that keeps dandyism in check. Wellington has said, "the best officers he had in the field were the Lancashire fox hunters." It would astonish many people to see how large some of these men are, and their wonderous horses; the late Robert Canning, Esq., of Foxcote, Warwickshire, stood six feet four inches, and with his saddle weighed seventeen stone, (of 14lbs. each ;) he was a man who could show what a horse could do; he was generally in at the death. I shall give some account of men who hunt, although blind; there is an instance of a horse blind with one eye, who ran until he was blind in the other, and made some terrible blundering leaps; and his rider for a time did not know of it: when he did, he left off for the day, and his horse recovered his sight. Accidents often arise. Wood, a huntsman during his life, had a leg, a thigh, and a collar-bone broken. Bob Williams, a huntsman, has had three broken ribs on one side, two on the other, both collar-bones, one thigh, and has been scalped. Some of their leaps are surprising. Lord Forrester cleared a brook, (after hounds,) his horse jumped thirty feet; the stream was twenty-one feet wide. Mr. Mytton, after a day's hunting, returning home, jumped a brook (without hounds) nine yards wide. He has cleared some deer hurdles upward of six feet high, and covered eight yards of ground in length at the same time. He also once leaped a gate seven feet high. The feats of jockeys, huntsmen, and whippers-in, would make a volume full of interest in daring feats. In the year 1840, died Arthur Pavis, aged thirty-two, he commenced his career as a jockey, riding then only three stone three pounds, (45lbs ;) he rode 1837 races, consisting of 2253 heats, and won 706 races; racing jockeys are seldom long lived, but huntsmen and whippers-in, notwithstanding the accidents they meet with, live the usual term. Buckle began to ride at nine years old, he did not reduce himself, but could ride seven stone eleven pounds, (109lbs ;) he realized a competency of about £1200 per annum, all of which he got at the risk of his neck; he was also very generous and charitable. The late Colonel Thornton was a wonderous man in a walking match, he went four miles in thirty-two minutes and half a second; in leaping he cleared his own height, five feet nine inches; in another match, he leaped over six five barred gates, in six minutes, and then repeated the same feat on horseback; at Newmarket, he rode down a hare on horseback. Captain Polhill, of the First Dragoon Guards, at Haigh-Park race course, on the seventeenth of April 1826, walked fifty miles, rode fifty miles, and drove fifty miles, in nineteen hours five minutes, including one hour and thirty-eight minutes rest for 100 sovereigns; on the ninth of November following, he rode ninety-five miles in four hours and seven minutes; he rode thirteen horses. Mr. Osbaldeston, rode 200 miles in eight hours and thirtynine minutes, at Newmarket, on the fifth of November, 1831; he made use of fifty horses. Mr. Mytton, rode once from London to Stamford, ninety-five miles, in less than five hours; when he came in, he was stone blind, but his sight soon returned; this must be owing to the exertion: no one yet has felt such inconvenience from rail-road travelling, even if they go twice that pace. "Before the Haw bridge was erected across the Severn, a famous old fox hunter, called, in familiar language, Jerry Hawkins, Esq., made a constant practice of swimming his horse across that navigable River, on his return from Gloucester market; his only guide, on the darkest night, being the stable lantern on a post at the coming out place." "Tewksbury Yearly Register, for 1834." Nothing impedes the huntsman, but a severe frost. The river Thames is often crossed by the whole field, when following the royal stag hounds. It is mainly to the sports of the field that Englishmen are at once so brave, and the country so powerful. Cobbett said, "a nation that could ride well, shoot well, and box well, could never be conquered." And he emphatically asks, "what chance would a regiment, composed of men who could only dance, sing, and act plays, have against one who could ride, box, and shoot?" These sports prepare men, when needful, to meet among 100,000 combatants, and act their part well, though furiously, "'midst all the din and implements of war." The last few paragraphs apply to our times; but they were formed by the manners and customs of the preceding, and are not likely at present to be changed: in fact, "the chase is an emblem of war." The huntsman's motto is, "NECASPERE TERENT." The most dangerous undertaking do not alarm us : "Bold Nimrod first the chase began, "A mighty hunter, and his game was man." POPE. In elevated situations, there are high towers built in some of the parks for the females to mount upon, where they can follow the chase by the eye for miles round. There is a square one, with four doomed turrets, at Chatsworth, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. In Speed's description of Britain, 1666, the hunting towers are called stands; from these buildings, originated the stands on race courses.* But ladies go hunting on horseback. The Dutchess of Cleveland goes regularly; she has one horse which she has rode seven years without a fall, and she rewards his care of her, by giving him a piece of plum bread every day. Nimrod, 1824. "Merrily, merrily, see them ride, Hark forward! the well known cry! This equestrian lady may occasion some surprise to my female readers, should I be so highly honoured as to have engaged their attention; but the following incidents will show it not a singular instance: In the year 1758, a lady undertook to ride 1000 miles in 1000 hours, which she accomplished in one third of the time; of course this was not according to the same sequence which Captain Barclay walked the same distance, in the same time. On the twenty-fifth of August, 1804, the lady of Colonel Thornton, rode a race against Mr. Flint, for 500 guineas, and 1000 guineas bye, at Knavesmire, in Yorkshire; she won the first heat, and would have won the second, had not her saddle-girth slipped. As she came in, she was cheered by the immensely assembled crowd with "Push on my dear lady-pray don't the whip stint To beat such as you, must have the heart of a Flint.' COURSING.-Coursing the hare is generally with a brace of grey hounds, or gaze-hounds, which run by sight and not by the scent; the chase is consequently very swift and soon over; the hare being lost sight of, (for occasionally it will out-run the dogs,) or killed, or sometimes both parties will run until quite exhausted, thus described by Dryden: "So have I seen some fearful hare maintain A course, till tired, before the dogs she lay, * The first English park was made by Henry I. at Woodstock, in Oxford shire, seven miles in circumference, and walled round with stone. The next was by a subject, Henry, Earl of Warwick, (at Wedgnock) near that Borough. At the time of the reformation, the see of Norwich, alone, had in possession thirteen parks, well stocked with deer, and other animals for the chase. The Itinerary of Fynes Moryson, 1617, says: "The English are so naturally inclined to pleasure, that there is no countrie, wherein gentleman and lords have so many, and so large parkes only reserved for the purpose of hunting." And again, "Our progenitors were so delighted with hunting, that the parkes are now grone infinite in number, and are thoughte to containe more fallow deere than all the Christian world beside." Americans, who have not been in England, and indeed many who have, can form no conception how numerous the hares are. Mr. Cobbett, in his "Rural Rides," October, 1822, gives the following account of seeing "an acre of hares;" he writes: "We were coursing at Everly, in Wiltshire, and one of the party happened to say, that he had seen an acre of hares, at Mr. Hicks Beech's, at Netherhaven; we, who wanted to see the same, or to detect our informant, sent a messenger to beg a day's coursing, which, being granted, we went over the next day. Mr. Beech received us very politely; he took us into a wheat stubble, close by his paddock, his son took a gallop round, cracking his whip at the same time; the hares (which were very thickly in sight before) started all over the field, ran into a flock like sheep, and we all agreed that the flock did cover an acre of ground. Mr. Beech had an old gray hound, that I saw lying down in the shrubbery, close by the house, while several hares were sitting and skipping about, with just as much confidence as cats sit by a dog, in a kitchen or parlour. Was this instinct in either dog or hares? Then mind, this same grey hound went out among the rest and killed the hares with as little remorse. Philosophers may talk a long while before they will make men believe that this was instinct alone. I believe that this dog had much more reason than one half the Cossacks have; and I am sure he had a great deal more than many a negro that I have seen." There can be no doubt of a great deal of difference in the sagacity of animals, and in the reasoning powers of man. What saith the following couplet: "Shall only man be taken in the gross, Grant but as many sorts of minds as moss." POPE. It appears from a Welch proverb, "Wrth ei walche, ei farche, a 'i filgi, yr adwaeni bonheddig," that a gentleman was known by his hawk, his horse, and his grey hound, (Pennant.) The present rules of coursing were made in the time of Elizabeth, which have not been altered. As this exciting sport with the hare cannot be followed here, it will be useless to give them. But the grey hound might be used in the West, against deer, wolves, and other obnoxious animals. Such being the case, the following six lines contain a full description of this sort of dog: The head like a snake, The side like a bream, The tail like a rat, The foot like a cat. But the nimble hare is often hunted by beagles, a beautiful little babbling hound. Colonel Hardy had a pack of this sort, ten or twelve couple, so small as to be carried to cover on a horse and a pair of panniers. Colonel Thornton's beagles were bred with so much endurance that they would tire down the strongest horses and hunters, and retire to their kennels comparatively fresh. But the harrier, a larger dog, are those most in repute for bare hunting; these will occasionally run down a fox, although not broke in expressly for that purpose. King James I., in his book ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΩΡΟΝ, * wrote a set of rules, addressed to his eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales, wherein he sets forth what pastimes he ought to pursue, both indoors and out; he says: "Certainly bodily exercises and games are very commendable, as well for banishing of idleness, the mother of all vice, as for making the body able and durable for travel, which is very necessarie for a king." After giving his opinion of which he ought to pursue, he states: “ I cannot omit here the hunting; namely, with running houndes, which is the most honourable and noblest thereof; for it is a thievish forme of hunting to shoot with guns and bowes; and grey hound hunting is not so martial a game." He concludes his subject with the following advice to his son: "Beware in making your sporters your counsellors." This is, no doubt, very good; but the following is very doubtful: Delighte not to keepe ordinarily in your companie comedians, or balladines.” Some of the commedians, and balladines, of his day, were far his superior, and from their knowledge of the world, could have given as good advice to his son as those with whom he was usually surrounded. 66 SPORTING TERMS. "Old customs, Oh! I love the sound, THERE is a language and terms very expressive, as in other sciences peculiar to sporting, as any one may learn by consulting a " Sportsman's Dictionary." The stags which ran wild in the king's forests were named as early (if not earlier) as Edward III., 1307, from their antlers,† * Basilicon Doron, or, a King's Christian Dutie towards God. † These antlers are real bones, and those of the elk are sometimes as heavy as fifty pounds weight; and in a fossil state in Ireland, have been dug |