contend that the clearest head that ever had a piece of velvet stuck on it could have done nothing with that hare, (from the length and number of her doubles) without such a hound as Challenger, and when we got home I showed my friend, in my hunting book, three runs I had had with her last season over the very same country, and through the very same meuses, and that I had recorded her, with one exception, as the most knowing hare I had ever encountered. What would the boasted reason of man have done against her instinct if he had not been assisted by the counter instinct of the hound? Ye flashy ones, let this be a lesson to you. Can we have a greater proof how independent huntinganimals are of man, than when we ask ourselves what huntsman has a pack of jackalls or pariah dogs, that hunt their game by scent and with a cry, and that too in the night, when all wild animals are moving? They soon find out that unless they mind what they are about they will get no supper; they must also kill more than one animal in a night, or they will not get enough to satisfy them. There must be some steady line hunters too among them, or they must frequently change. I have no doubt but some grey-faced sages assume the direction of the chase.

Thirty years ago I witnessed two extraordinary circumstances in a hound called "Ravager," bred by the late Duke of Bedford, and entered at fox, where he was good; but being below their size he was drafted, and given to the late Lord Southampton to hunt hare, at which he was also good. His lordship afterwards hunting fox, kept "Ravager," who was again good at fox. On his disposing of his hounds, "Ravager" was given to the late Lord Ongley, with whom he was again good at hare, and by him given to Mr. Wells, in whose possession I saw him perform the two following feats. The pack brought a hare, with a good hunting scent, under a hedge side, through a gap into a turnpike road; Ravager went very slowly down the middle of the road, with his nose to the ground for a hundred yards, when he paused for a minute; he jumped over the hedge to the left, swung across the corner of the field, over the bank, and across the corner of the next field, again over the hedge into the road, and felt up it, then to the left out of the road to the hedge side they had come down; when he had finished it, without waiting to put his nose down, he jumpt back into the road, gave his tongue very freely, and set off down the middle of it best pace. When we had gone about half a mile further, a boy stood by a gate, Boy, did you see the hare?" "Yes, she went under this gate," and away they went with it. Will any one deny that the hound reasoned in the following manner. "I am almost positive it is here, but I cannot speak to it, I will try every other point first, and if I cannot touch it, it must be here." Had he put his nose down before he spoke I should not have noticed it so much, but before he got into the road he roared out as much as to say "I am sure

now it is down the road, get on with it as fast as you can." Could Socrates or Solomon have acted more wisely?

In the second instance, they were bringing a scent across a grass ground, pointing for a gap into the next field; when within fifty yards of the gap the body of the pack turned short to the right and ran very hard down the field; the moment they turned, the old hound went forward to the gap and felt it, and by the flourish of his stern I felt satisfied he had got it. He, however, did not speak, but came back and looked at the rest while they were running the double, he waited till they made their swing, first to the left, then to the right, when finding it was not forward, as he stood (without going back to the gap) he threw his tongue, called them all back, and showed them the line in the next field! Could the wisest huntsman that ever lived have acted more judiciously?

In perusing your March Number, I was much struck by a question raised by two very distinguished characters (Nimrod and Williamson, the Duke of Buccleuch's huntsman,) over their whiskey-toddy, viz., Whether one fox emits a different scent from another, and I felt the more surprised, as I have long considered (how justly, remains to be proved,) that no two animals of the same species emit a similar scent. If otherwise, how could the tail-hounds, as I have often seen, feel across the ride after a crowd of horses and catch that of their huntsman? How could the Blood-hound carry the scent through herds of the same kind? How could a dog of any sort distinguish the foot of his master through a crowded metropolis? Both in fox-hunting and in hare-hunting I have seen numberless instances, in addition to those I mentioned in your February Number. Some years ago I was invited to take the hounds into a fine grass country, abounding with stiff bullock-fences. We had no sooner found, than I discovered that we had scent enough to kill, and I let them alone. After fifty minutes quiet steady hunting, we ran into a small cover. There was a holloa away immediately on the other side. As soon as the hounds got to it, I perceived we had changed, and on asking if any one had put up another hare, was answered "Yes, and that she came towards the cover we had just left half an hour before." As I thought it too much stained to recover our first, I determined to keep on as well as I could with the fresh one. With her there was scarcely an atom of scent. As hounds were a novelty in the country, the whole population were out, horse and foot, and an Indian " war-whoop" was tranquillity compared to the noise they made. Finding nothing was to be done, and that they must have a gallop, I took out my horn and went from one holloa to another, as hard as I could go for half an hour. One of my friends came up to me and said "What the devil is the matter with you to-day?" "Hold your tongue and get out of the way, I am surrounded by a set of fools, and am de

termined to be the biggest fool among them." By one absurd means or another we killed her. It was perfectly ridiculous to see the field take their hats off, shake hands, and pronounce it one of the most brilliant and splendid runs ever seen; I really believe a hound scarcely spoke for the last three-quarters of an hour. I gave them the hare, they dined together afterwards, and I understood almost deified me because I had been a GREAT FOOL! Such is the opinion of a field. The next time I went out most grievously did I repent my folly. On opening her the failure of scent was easily accounted for, they found she was with young.

I yesterday saw a fox most scientifically killed by the Cambridgeshire hounds, after a run of two hours and twenty minutes with a very bad scent. From the length of the time, there were, of course, several holloas, and Ward the huntsman, knowing how ticklish a scent he had to deal with, instead of capping them to it, held them on their noses to the line of the holloa, and generally came up with the scent to the spot pointed out, and by that means they were enabled to keep on with it, and lost no time. At length the fox waited for them, and they were laid on very near him. They went through a small plantation that adjoined a very favourite breeding cover, but instead of going into it, the hounds turned under the side and away from it with a weak scent, pointing for a score of foot people. Every body exclaimed it is impossible he can have gone there, and I thought so too, for a reason unknown to the field; I had seen another fox come from that direction fifteen minutes before, and I supposed they were on the stale scent of him. The squire very cleverly, with the flourish of his whip, stopped the tailhounds, turned them to the huntsman, and signaled him to make a short sharp cast back, leaving the leading hounds to make out their scent; before he had finished his cast they owned it, and carried it past the foot people into another plantation, the scent improved, and in ten minutes more they pushed him out of some briars and ran into him. As soon as the hounds had passed the foot people, that part of the field that had been most clamourous in persisting that the fox had not gone there, were then the most positive he could not have gone any other way! I have not much hair on my head, but I thought I should have pulled what little there is off. I was much puzzled why hounds so near their fox (for I had viewed him not a minute before them) should not be able to get on with the scent, on that particular spot, and asked the foot people how long they had been there, "Oh they came there just as the hounds came into the field." I then recollected that that part was much stained in the morning by horse and foot and several curs, which accounted for it.

I will now, sir, conclude for the present by giving you an instance of

the absurdity of contrary conduct, showing that some people do not always practice what they preach. This being a very inviting morning, I took the hounds to a very likely rough grass ground. Although it was twelve o'clock before I arrived at it, the scent was so good that they could run the trail, and soon pushed up a brace of hares. Luckily the hounds saw but one, and set to work at her with the utmost determination, and such a scent as I have not witnessed all the season. They went pretty straight, at a terrific pace, over a deep plough country, and we could not catch them till they turned to us; just before we got to them they threw up, and were swinging back among some sheep, when I very foolishly took hold of them, and held them beyond the sheep, without effect. I tried several other points with no better success. I then stood still, when every hound fell back to the point I had taken them from, hit the scent, and carried it back over our foil and defeated me.

Now ye who wish to be sportsmen, have before you the wisdom of others and the instinct of the hound to guide you, and my folly to guard you. Let this one great truth be imprinted on your memory, let it be impressed on the minds of your children, that hounds know best, and much better than a

THISTLEWHIPPER.

THE ANGLER'S INVITATION

O leave for a while the dull smoke of the city;
Sons of gain, quit your desks, and your ledgers lay by,
Seek health in the fields while each bird sings its ditty,
And breathe the pure air underneath the broad sky.
Sons of pleasure, come view the sweet primroses springing,
Leave the scene where the light figuranté whirls round;
Come, list to the lark in the blue ether singing,

Come, see how the deer in the green forest bound.

The glad trout is roaming in every clear stream,
And the gilse and the salmon now drink the May flood;
Then, anglers, be up with the sun's early beam,

Let your flies be in trim and your tackle be good;
In Till there's good store of fat trouts to be won,—
Let your skill load your creels as you wander along,
And at night, as you tell of the feats you have done,

Cheer your talk with a cup of good wine and a song.

THE FITZWILLIAM HUNT.

Y

As a reader of your excellent Magazine, and an occasional correspondent, it has frequently been matter of surprise to me that so slight mention has been made in your pages of Earl Fitzwilliam's hounds. Under no other circumstances should I have ventured upon any remarks on this first rate establishment, from a feeling of inability to do it justice; but, in the absence of other and better information, I trust your readers will accept the will for the deed, and supply from the data many an hiatus in my narrative. It needs no praise of mine to confer upon these hounds the meed of fame, as the Fitzwilliam blood has long been celebrated for its excellence-drafts eagerly sought for in the first kennels -and the hounds themselves signalized for their high courage and enduring speed, to say nothing of their make and shape, which are strong and beautiful. They hunt three, and occasionally four, days a week, and have two packs or about sixty couple of hounds in the kennel, a list of which I hope to subjoin at the conclusion of my remarks. The kennel, which stands in the deer park at Milton, is about a stone's throw from the huntman's lodge, and is now a very commodious and roomy building. Considerable improvement has been made in this respect since Tom Seabright, the present huntsman, has had it under his management -a portion of the park having been taken in and surrounded with a lofty wall and palisades, forming extensive airing yards for the hounds. Within the last two years, a spacious pond has been made in the park, and an excellent supply of water obtained, which situated as it is, close to the kennel, is admirably adapted for washing or watering the hounds upon their return home, previous to their being fed and kenneled. Of the huntsman, Mr. Seabright, it is not too much to say that he is always in his place that he is a keen and good sportsman-and is highly respected. (In proof of this, I may mention, in a parenthesis, that a bandsome subscription has just closed amongst the gentlemen of the hunt, the object of which is to present him with several articles of plate, which I believe are to comprise a cup and tea-service, or a punch-bowl and two tankards, the former intended as a compliment to Mrs. Seabright also. This subscription was conducted in a quiet way, under the auspices of W. G. Porter, Esq., in Northamptonshire, and Mr. Richard Goodliffe, in Huntingdonshire, and the presentation is to take place shortly, at the Crown Inn, Conington, in the latter county, where a large party of the right sort will undoubtedly be found assembled.) The three whips are all very civil men, and one of them, "old Isaac," has been in the Earl's service now many years, and is much respected by the farmers and sportsmen for his uniform civility. Of the Fitzwilliam country, the