It We lodged himself, we know not how, on the top of the bank, and then bounced into the next field with the greatest ease, scarcely breaking his stride as he followed in the run this was enough: we felt comfortable, safe, and satisfied. It was a fine mild morning in February, when, mounted on his reverence, we quietly wended our way to the meet. was impossible to have selected a more favourable place than that which Jack (for such was his cognomen) had chosen; and we know not whether it was the sporting conversation we had previously had with this functionary, or the sight of a new and wiry-looking animal in the field, with a light-weight on his back, that encouraged him to more than usual zeal; but, as he touched his cap on our approach, he certainly looked as did his horse and hounds--up to the mark. In addition to the huntsman and ourself, the field consisted of only six other persons; three were well-mounted gentlemen; the other three came there to hunt how they could, and, we trust, went home as well satisfied as we did with the sport. A minute scarcely elapsed ere the word was given, when the pack settled on a quest, and another showed a fine large hare bounding up the slope before them. No attempt was made to force the hounds; they settled well on their game, and away we went. had scarcely crossed the first dry ditch, and topped an ugly bank, ere we found that we had made no mistake in our purchase, and the pace was good enough to try the wind even of a well-conditioned thoroughbred one. Jack the huntsman, a ten-stone man, mounted on a wellseasoned hunter, with ourself, led the van; and we know not if heretofore he had been accustomed to ride alone on such occasions; one thing, however, was certain, that, whatever he might know about hunting his pack, a fast and quick run, with plenty of fencing, was his delight, not less so than our own; and, as from time to time he cast his merry eye towards us, we felt convinced that he was now perfectly satisfied he had a companion to ride with him, if not against him; and with this idea uppermost in his mind, he had the good sense to let the hounds do their own work, and allow the hare to escape if she could. On we went steering across the heather for well two miles without a check-scent good, and pace excellent-when a sharp double near one of the fir plantations brought us towards the enclosed fields. Here a little hunting in earnest commenced; the hare doubled and dodged, and Jack had the presence of mind to allow her to double, and the hounds to do so likewise. Our field was now reduced to four. The scent was too good, however, and the hounds too staunch to be defeated; and puss, once more facing the down, gave us another delightful twenty minutes, and then surrendered to her gallant pursuers. Satisfied that we had witnessed what harriers could do in a fair country, when unmolested by the overzeal of man, and having secured the attention of Jack by riding over two gates-a rare occurrence in those parts, though the commonest occurrence in most others--he failed not on all occasions to give us an opportunity of joining in his sport whenever the hounds met in a fair hunting country, and we hesitate not to say that many an hour's run, and many half-hour's run, have we had over those downs when not six mounted men followed in the chase. Not a word, not a hallo, not an unnecessary shout was made, and yet we had sport, and this with harriers such as Jack's will never be obliterated from our memory. One word in reference to those memoranda of other days, and we will close our brief remarks on this delightful sport. The hounds had met on our favourite heathered knoll: a hare was instantly on foot, and twenty minutes saw her dead across the loins of Jack's horse. At the termination of this run, which had been very fast, without one single check, the hare, much pressed, had crossed a highway and entered some fields near at hand. She was at this time dead beat, and we felt assured could not live to top two more fences, for they were enormous. Under the gate she went, and the hounds were so close at hand that, viewing her, they entered the field almost at the same time. The fence from the field was impracticable without a fall; and we hate fencing, still more gate-jumping; without necessity it is unsportsman-like, and shows no pluck. Here was, however, a case of necessity. Jack was not immediately at hand, so we took a pull at the parson, put his head straight, crossed the road in a gallop, and over the gate we went safe into the field, in time to prevent the hounds breaking up the hare. "Damn it, sir!" said the huntsman, coming up the moment after; "I thank you; that's a rare jumper, that chesnut of yours; I'd give much to be on his back for half an hour." Be it so," said we; mount him, Jack; he will carry you well; ride him straight, and fear not. We equally desire to have a ride on the bony animal on which you are mounted; he seems to know his business well. The bargain struck, and Jack he cried- lord." Away we went again, the huntsman on the parson, our illustrious self mounted on the peer's Bucephalus-a large, bony, admirable hunter, as safe over bank, ditch, or broken ground as were you wheeled in a Bath chair. Another hare was soon found. Jack led the van, and jumped every fence he could possibly jump, to try our unfortunate chesnut; we followed close on his heels on the horse of my lord, the couples rattling to the saddle-bow, the horn placed at hand which we longed to blow, and the dead hare strapped in her leather covering on our rear-right merrily we went for a mile or two, when lo! at the end of a lane, we came to a slight check. Jack had that moment dismounted to prick the hare, an example we were about to follow, when, thunder and lightning! who should appear but the noble owner of the pack, followed by a trusty groom! Fortunately, the baron could not see ten yards before him, and his groom followed good-naturedly, grinned, and would not see us. Jack, who then convinced us he was an Irishman, had we not previously surmised such to be the case, cried out, "Blood and 'ounds!" -or hounds, we know not which—" here's my lord." And he seized the bridle of the horse, from which we quickly dismounted, and having once more seated ourselves on his reverence, and feeling the sport for the day at least was over, we quietly jogged homewards. The noble baron was satisfied with the finding of horse-flesh for his hounds-we surmise he would not have been equally so for those who rode after them. During the early part of the last spring we visited for a few days the scene of these happy sporting reminiscences. The baron was well nigh forgotten, the fair hunting fields were in the hands of trustees, and the hounds, without trial by judge or jury, had been one and all condemned to death by the baroness-a pity that she had not been doomed to a similar fate for so unwomanly an act. As for poor Jack, we know not of his whereabouts; but, if he should fortunately have secured a kind master and a good sportsman, the making of a good servant with hounds was in him. We were told that a pack of harriers were still permitted to meet on our favourite ground once during each week in the season, and, as far as we could learn, they are admirably hunted by a gentleman-farmer of the county; but the weather was too frosty to permit of our meeting them. THE STUD. THE POCKET AND BY HARRY HIEOVER. (Concluded.) Whatever weal or woe to the community our present hight Minister may work, whatever may be the laws or customs he may adopt or abrogate, and whatever may be the consequent share of praise or censure that may follow, I really consider the public are under very considerable obligations to him for bringing in that truly commodious carriage, the Brougham. Of course improvements have been made on the original: I do not mean Lord Brougham, for he cannot be improved. Now this remark I really consider a hit in politics, and a stroke in policy beyond the usual wont of Harry Hieover; for cach party may apply it as suits their own ideas of the justness of its application. The general utility of the carriage, however, cannot be disputed; and if we miss many of the more imposing equipages that formerly graced our streets, we also miss, from this substitution, a host of turns-out that reminded us of No. 527 with the plate off. The only objection that may be alleged against the Brougham is that, with some ladies, the families grow too numerous for it; but so far as a couple of darlings go, they can be squeezed in, and, as papa does not as yet feel the pinch of them, he bears it cheerfully. Two more, however, require the getting another carriage to hold them in. This is still bearable, and pa good-humouredly calls the omnibus a sociable. A couple more bring calls for cash that make it necessary to abandon the sociable, and somewhat decreases the sociability. Pa, however, must have some means of locomotion, so he now gets a cheap gig. This he appropriately enough calls his "sulky;" but next year a ninth puts down the sulky, brings on the sulks, and pa, striking his forehead in despair, now cries, " God send me a hearse!" For whom he invokes it, is best known to himself; but if it is not wanted for some one else, I strongly recommend him to use it for himself: I should in such a case. Before getting to this extremity, and while keeping some other sort of carriage, let us look at the pro and con as to keeping it and the horse or horses at livery. Here the expediency of doing so or not does not only arise from the consideration of the horse, but so far as regards the man. If he is wanted to wait at breakfast, and confine himself the whole morning to the house, it is quite clear he cannot have anything to do with the equipage. If only wanted occasionally, then he can both drive and take charge of it. So far as driving it goes, there can be nothing objectionable in any man doing that; but I must say I have always considered it as extremely bad taste and a very poor affectation to see a man in a footman's livery carrying a tray about a drawing-room, who we know was strapping at a horse some time the same afternoon. When living in this mediocre way, superior women-servants are far preferable. The horse, or two horses, can be kept, we know, cheaper in private stables than at livery; but if you devote a man exclusively to one or even two, he will altogether cost as much as the horses; so the question merges into this: Which is preferred-keeping the carriage and horses at home, and keeping a coachman; or sending all to livery, and keeping a footman only? I should say, in a family in this position of society, the latter is by far the preferable plan. The idea that horses will not be done justice to at livery s, in a general way, a very unjust and fallacious one; for, I have o hesitation in saying that, provided you apply to a respectable person in his line, and he knows your horses are to remain with him, they have a far greater chance of being well done by than if left to the care of half the (soi-disant) coachmen in London. The carriage, harness, and horses will be properly turned out, for this simple reason it is the master's interest they should be, in order to keep your custom, and to get that of others by your equipage being well turned out; and he saves nothing by allowing his men to be idle. If the horses are not done justice to as regards feeding, they will show it; and he will lose them and his character. If your horses look badly from your using them unfairly, it is your fault; and for his own sake he will shortly tell you that you do so, and will not be very nice as to whether you take them away or not, for, in fact, keeping them will injure more than benefit his yard. Send for a known respectable man; agree by the quarter or half-year or year for your horses, at a price that will enable him to feed them properly as regards your demand on them as to work; put them under his charge; pay the stableman who takes care of them liberally; and your horses will have every justice: for it must be borne in mind that, though the majority of helpers in dealers' and livery yards are scamps unfit for private families, they are first-rate stablemen, and your horses will be under the eye of a man who knows how to treat them-an advantage that it is by no means certain they would derive from being overlooked by the generality of masters even, setting aside ladies. This much observation has taught me: Take a hundred horses kept in the private stables of the generality of persons, and a hundred kept in the best livery stables more rough coats, impoverished looks, colds, coughs, cracked heels, and other sickness from bad management will be found, by three to one in the former. I should say just the same thing by a man keeping a hunter if he lives in London. Many persons do this and send their horse down the night before to meet any of the hounds within twenty miles of London. I This is done by some from a very mistaken motive of kindness to the horse; and from the same mistaken notion that they are consulting their own interest by having the horse under their own eye, and under the care of their own servant. We will look a little at this. In the first place, under such circumstances, so far as his stable treatment goes, for three days out of the four, that is, the day he goes out of town, the hunting day, and the day of returning-if sent such a distance-he is scarcely under their eye at all. Then comes the query, "Is their eye of any great advantage to him when it is over him?" and the care of their own servant is not always a guarantee that the care is of the very best sort. In fact, with the ordinary run of London grooms, I will answer for it that it is not. And supposing that it was, how can a horse, situated as he must be in London, ever be fit to go with hounds? The most proper thing that is done with him during the week, to prepare him, is his twenty miles' walk the day preceding hunting; and against this we have to set the very improper act of dragging a stiff and tired horse home the next day twenty miles along a turnpike road, in lieu of one-hour's gentle walk on turf, just to stretch his legs and conduce to recover his appetite. If he is brought home, that his owner may have him to ride in the park the intermediate days, the idea is unreasonable; probably, in fact almost to a certainty, if there was anything of a run, a horse thus treated through the week will refuse his corn at night, and quite as probably the next morning. Five hours on the road, with an empty stomach, and aching limbs, is not a very proper preparation for a show off in the park; and where is he to get a gallop to prepare him for the next hunting day, unless he is sent to some of the places stated to be for the exercise of hunters, close to town, where their feet and legs are battered to pieces in the spring and autumn, and they are smothered with mud if sent there in the winter? It is all very well to send a horse to Banstead downs in the morning, take a canter with the harriers, and trot him quietly home afterwards. The horse would be the better for the exercise twice a week, and his master too; but to expect one to be bottled up in London, and really go with fox-hounds, or the Queen's, is out of the question. I will venture to say there are more horses killed, injured, and lamed, and consequently more falls from those sent down to hunt under such circumstances, in proportion to the number out, in one season, than occur with all the determined riders in Leicestershire in half-a-dozen. And so it must ever be where horses are expected to go without their wind, stamina, and muscles being properly braced up by proper treatment. Let us look at this mode of doing the thing, and another plan; and see, setting aside being well carried, how, in point of actual money, the thing would work. I am now alluding to keeping a hunter at a hunting stable at livery. We will say a good fair horse, with average runs, will carry a man three times a fortnight-which a good wear and tear horse will do. If the distance is such as to bring you to the Queen's stag-hounds, or to any fox-hounds out of the reach of the omnibuses, your man must be out nine days a fortnight, paying for your horse, of course, sixpence a feed for oats, and the usual charge for hay; compare these expenses to what you would have to pay at a regular hunting stable, the balance would not be a fortune. At such stable you have but the one expense, your |