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met with a paffage which he could not comprehend, was used to write in the margin opposite matiere embrouillée, and gave himself no furOther concern about it. As different caufes have been known to produce the fame effects, should you treat me in like manner, I fhall think it the feverest cenfure that can be paffed upon me. Our friend Somervile, I apprehend, was no great fox-hunter; yet all he fays on the fubject of hunting is fo fenfible and juft, that I fhall turn to his account of fox-hunting, and quote it where I can.-The hour in the morning, most favourable to the diverfion, is certainly an early one; nor do I think I can fix it better than to fay, the hounds fhould be at the cover at fan-rifing. Let us fuppofe we are arrived at the cover fide.

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Delightful fcene!

Where all around is gay, men, horfes, dogs;
And in each smiling countenance appears
Fresh blooming health, and universal joy."

SOMERVILE.

Now let your huntfman throw in his hounds as quietly as he can, and let the two whippers in keep wide of him on either hand, so that a fingle hound may not escape them; let them be attentive to his balloo, and be ready to encourage, or rate, as that directs; he will, of course, draw up the wind, for reafons which I fhall give in another place. Now, if you can keep your Brother sportsmen in order, and put any difcretion into them, you are in lack; they more frequently do harm than good: if it be poffible, perfuade thofe, who with to halloo the fox off, to ftand quiet under the cover fide, and on no account to halloo him too foon: if they do, he most certainly will. turn back again: could you entice them all into the cover, your fport, in all probability, would not be the worfe for it.

How well the hounds fpread the cover! the huntfman you fee is quite deferted, and his horfe, which fo lately had a crowd at his heels, has not now one attendant left. How fteadily they draw! you hear not a fingle hound; yet none are idle. Is not this better than to be fubject to continual difappointment, from the eternal babbling of unfteady hounds?

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See! how they range

SOMERY.

Difpers'd, how bufily this way and that, They crofs, examining with curious nofe Each likely haunt. Hark! on the drag I hear Their doubtful notes, precluding to a cry More nobly full, and fwell'd with every mouth." How musical their tongues! Now as they get nearer to him, how the chorus fills! Hark! he is found. Now, where are all your for rows and your cares, ye gloomy fouls! Or where your pains, and aches, ye complaining ones! one halloo has difpelled them all.What a crash they make! and echo feemingly takes pleasure to repeat the found. The aftonished traveller forfakes his road, lured by its melody; the liftening ploughman now flops his plough; and every dilant fhepherd neglects his flock, and runs to fee him break. What joy what eagerness in every face!

How happy art thou, man, when thou'rt no more
Thy felf! when all the pangs that grind thy foul,

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In rapture and in fweet oblivion loft,

Yield a fhort interval, and ease from pain!"

SOMERV. Mark how he runs the cover's utmost limits, yet dares not venture forth; the hounds are still too near. That check is lucky;- now, if our friends head him not, he will foon be off-hark! they halloo : by G-d he's gone.

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Hark! what loud fhouts

Re-echo thro' the groves! he breaks away:

Shrill horns proclaim his flight. Each straggling hound
Strains o'er the lawn to reach the distant pack.

'Tis triumph all, and joy.",

Now huntsman get on with the head hounds; the whipper-in will bring on the others after you: keep an attentive eye on the leading hounds, that should the scent fail them, you may know at least how far they brought it.

Mind Galloper, how he leads them!-It is difficult to distinguish which is first, they run in fuch a ftyle; yet he is the foremost hound. -The goodness of his nofe is not lefs excellent than his fpeed :- How he carries the scent! and when he lofes it, fee how eagerly he flings to recover it again.-There-now he's at head again-fee how they top the hedge!-Now, how they mount the hill!--Obferve what a head they carry; and fhew me, if you can, one fhuffler or skirter amongst them all are they not like a parcel of brave fellows, who, when they undertake a thing, determine to fhare its fatigue and its dangers equally amongst them.

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Far o'er the rocky hills we range,
And dangerous our courfe; but in the brave
True courage never fails. In vain the stream
In foaming eddies whirls, in vain the ditch
Wide gaping threatens death. The craggy steep,
Where the poor dizzy shepherd crawls with care,
And clings to every twig, gives us no pain;
But down we fweep, as ftoops the falcon bold
To pounce his prey. Then up th' opponent hill,
By the fwift motion flung, we mount aloft:

So fhips in winter feas now fliding fink
Adown the steepy wave, then tofs'd on high
Ride on the billows, and defy the ftorm."

SOMERV.

It was then the fox I faw, as we came down the hill ;- those crows directed me which way to look, and the sheep ran from him, as he paft along. The hounds are now on the very spot, yet the sheep ftop them not, for they dash beyond them. Now fee with what eagerness they cross the plain. Galloper no longer keeps his place, Brusher takes it; fee how he flings for the fcent, and how impetuously he runs!- How eagerly he took the lead, and how he strives to keep it; yet Victor comes up apace.-He reaches him!-See what an excellent race it is between them!--It is doubtful which will reach the cover firft. How equally they run;- how eagerly they ftrain;-now Victor, Victor!- Ah! Brusher, you are beat; Victor first tops the hedge. See there! fee how they all take it in their ftrokes! the hedge cracks with their weight; fo many jump at once.

• Now

Now haftes the whipper-in to the other fide the cover;-he is right, unless he heads the fox.

"Heav'ns! what melodious ftrains! how beat our hearts Big with tumultuous joy! the loaded gales Breathe harmony; and as the tempeft drives From wood to wood, thro' every dark recess The foreft thunders, and the mountains shake." Liften!- the hounds have turned.-They are now in two parts: the fox has been headed back, and we have changed at last.

SOMERV.

Now, my lad, mind the huntfman's halloo, and stop to those hounds which he encourages. He is right; that, doubtless, is the hunted fox:-Now they are off again—

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"What lengths we pafs! where will the wand'ring chace
Lead us bewilder'd! fmooth as fwallows fkim

The new-fhorn mead, and far more fwift we fly.
See my brave pack; how to the head they prefs,
Juftling in clofe array, then more diffuse

Obliquely wheel, while from their op'ning mouths
The vollied thunder breaks.

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His vigour spent: the tall, plump, brawny youth
Curfes his cumbrous bulk; and envies now
The fhort pygmean race, he whilom kenn'd
With proud infulting leer, A chofen few
Alone the fport enjoy, nor droop beneath
Their pleafing toils."

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SOMERV.

Ha! a check. Now for a moment's patience. We press too close upon the hounds.-Huntfman, ftand ftill: as yet they want you not. -How admirably they spread! how wide they caft! is there a fingle hound that does not try if fuch a one there be, he ne'er fhall hunt again. There, Trueman is on the fcent; he feathers, yet ftill is doubtful; 'tis right! how readily they join him! See thofe wide cafting hounds, how they fly forward, to recover the ground they have Joft! Mind Lightning, how the dashes; and Mungo, how he works! Old Frantic, too, now pushes forward; fhe knows, as well as we, the fox is finking.

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To black defpair.
His wiles are vain.

Ha! yet he flies, nor yields
But one loofe more, and all
Hark! thro' yon village now
The rattling clamour rings. The barns, the cots,
And leaflefs elms return the joyous founds.
Thro' ev'ry homeftall, and thro' ev'ry yard,

His midnight walks, panting, forlorn, he flies;

Th' unerring hounds

SOMERV.

With peals of echoing vengeance close purfue." Huntfman! at fault at laft? How far did you bring the fcent?-Have the hounds made their own caft ? Now make yours. You fee that fheep-dog has been courfing the fox ;-get forward with your hounds, and make a wide cast.

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'Hark!

Hark! that halloo is indeed a lucky one. -If we can hold him on, we may yet recover him; for a fox, so much diftreffed, must stop at laft. We now fhall fee if they will hunt, as well as run; for there is but little fcent, and the impending cloud ftill makes that little lefs. How they enjoy the fcent; fee how busy they all are; and how each ir. his turn prevails.

Huntfman! be quiet! Whilft the fcent was good, you prefs'd on your hounds; it was well done. Your hounds were afterwards at fault; you made your caft with judgment, and loft no time. You Dow muft let them hunt; with fuch a cold fcent as this, you can do no good. They must do it all themselves; life them now, and not

a hound will loop again.-Ha! a high road, at fuch a time as this, when the tendereft-nofed hound can hardly own the fcent! Another fault! That man at work, then, has headed back the fox.-Huntfman! caft not your hounds now, you fee they have over-run the fcent; have a little patience, and let them, for once, try back.

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"We now must give them time;-fee where they bend towards yonder furze brake; I with he may have ftopped there.- Mind that old hound, how he dashes o'er the furze; I think he winds him; - Now for a fresh entapis :-Hark; they halloo :- Aye, there he goes.

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It is near over with him; had the hounds caught view he must have died. He will hardly reach the cover; fee how they gain upon him at every ftroke! It is an admirable race; yet the cover faves him.

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Now be quiet, and he cannot escape us; we have the wind of the hounds, and cannot be better placed; - how fhort he runs!- he is now in the very strongest part of the cover.- What a crash! every hound is in, and every hound is running for him. That was a quick turn! Again another;-he's put to his laft fhifts.-Now Mifchief is at his heels, and death is not far off. Ha! they all ftop at once; all filent, and yet no earth is open. Liften!. now they are at him again.-Did you hear that hound catch view? they had over-run the fcent, and the fox had laid down behind them. Now, Reynard, look to yourself. How quick they all give their tongues!-Little Dreadnought, how he works him! the terriers, too, they now are fqueaking at him.-How clofe lengeance purfues! how terribly the preffes! it is juft up with him. Gods! what a crash they make; the whole wood refounds.That turn was very fhort.-There — now ;— aye, now they have him. Who-hoop.'

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All this is extatic, and by the aid of that enthusiasm our Author declares to be neceffary to relifh a fox chace, a man may be rapt into the third heaven at fuch an enchanting scene! But having thus difcharged our duty to the Public and to the Author in the capacity of Reviewers, we cannot think of dismisfing a fubject that never till now came fo profeffedly before us, without introducing a word or two concerning humanity and tenderness to the brute creation: although we believe this is a fubject, of which true fportfmen never think, or with to be reminded.

There is a clear diftinction between hunting to rid a country of mifchievous animals; and bringing in and cherifhing thofe

mifchievous

mifchievous animals to the detriment of the pains taking farmer, merely for the wanton fport and fictitious glory of destroying them afterward in a manner that aggravates the injury done to the defenceless and difregarded husbandman. Hunting on continents may be a neceffary bufinefs, or a pleasure engrafted on neceffary bufinefs; in an ifland fo generally cultivated as Great Britain, it is a very expenfive fyftem of tyranny and barbarity in all its circumstances, from the beginning to the end. Air and exercife, the best pleas for the chace, may be enjoyed in full extent, and feats of agility practifed and exhibited, in a variety of rural exercises and fports which do not depend on the wanton abuse and torture of any living being fufceptible of pain. We call upon the feelings of any man who does not avowedly dif claim all tender feelings, to attend to the treatment of animals as reprefented in the work before us, and then to lay his hand on his heart, and declare how far they agree with those sentiments we dignify by the term humanity.

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Firft, as to the hounds, "to whom, (fays our Author) we are obliged for fo much diverfion," we understand they flog them while they feed them; and if they have not always a "belly full one way, they feldom fail to have it the other *" This is but four fauce to their meat; and however we may wonder at fuch catholic difcipline during meal time, we are filenced by the relator, who profeffes it is not his intention to oppofe fo general a practice, in which he fays there may be fome utility: he only recommends difcretion in the ufe of the whip. We may guefs to what extent the whipping of hounds is carried, by the frequent hints our Author gives of moderation in that refpect, and by what he allows. It is feldom (fays he) neceffary to flog hounds to make them obedient, fince obedience is the first leffon they are taught. Yet, if any are more riotous than the reft, they may receive a few cuts in the morning, before they leave the kennel.' Thus we find eat or not eat, work or play, whipping is always in feason, and as there is fo much ftated work to perform, we need not inquire why two whippersin, befide the huntsman, are required to one pack of fox hounds.

To keep the hounds fteady to their proper game, calls for much of this unmerciful treatment. Our Author, as ufual, begins with recommending moderation, but we fhall foon underftand him: It is (fays he) a common practice with huntfmen to flog their hounds most unmercifully in the kennel: I have already told you I like it not; but if many of your hounds are obstinately riotous, you may with lefs impropriety put a live hare into the kennel to them; flogging them as often as they approach her they

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