lately streaked with grey. In his articles on Irish fox hounds in Bell's Life, he often notices his friend John M'Mahon, Esq., of Firgrove; for every member of that gentleman's family, and it is numerous, he entertained not only friendship, but the warmest affection; he was often domesticated in it, and always spoke gratefully of the endearing attentions he had therein received, particularly in the season of his severest illness. It will be long ere his memory shall be obliterated from the minds of that household. The writer has already stated that he had enjoyed his confidence; he had, therefore, during the term of his long and intimate friendship several opportunities of becoming acquainted with his sentiments on general topics. In religion, he was a liberal christian of the established church, and as a necessary consequence, he was also of liberal opinions in politics, although from being of high Tory connexions, he was generally supposed to have been of that party. Those sarcastic sallies which he occasionally indulged in at the expense of Dan, as he usually styled him, are all to be ascribed to humour, and not to any unfavourable estimate of that man's character, of which the writer has often heard him speak in terms of the highest eulogium. The writer could, if necessary, give a very remarkable proof of the liberality of his sentiments on his death bed. On that bed he sat a short time before his death, and though his features were already stamped with the characters of the grave, he conversed with him freely and calmly on literary subjects. As a proof of the agonies which he was suffering from the terrible disease that was rapidly and violently making havoc of his frame, he mentioned to the writer that he had been racing the night before, and supposed himself Harkaway in a fever, and that he could not get Tom Ferguson to bleed him. Like Napoleon on his death bed, talking of the French army, sporting subjects, to which his mind had been so much given up, were constantly disturbing him. But that he was able to mention this anecdote is a proof that he became collected as his death approached. Let us hope that he died the death of the Christian, and that he has already found grace before that tribunal to which man, though erring, never appeals in vain. The nature of his pursuits rendered his character, like that of every man who follows the like, liable to suspicion, but the writer can state with confidence that a stain rests not on his name."

Notitia Venatica.

No. XI.

BY ACTEON.

(Continued from page 199)

AFTER the regular hunting season has commenced, a general physicing will be needless where the pack have been properly prepared, until after Christmas, when the first opportunity of administering a mild dose should never be lost sight of; but as the endurance of frost is always very uncertain, it should be of such a nature that the field may be taken immediately, upon the sudden return of open weather; but when hunting is fairly stopped by the extreme hardness of the ground, and the chance of again going to work is undoubtedly gone for many days, the attention of the huntsman must be awakened towards allaying the excess of stimuli, which a long continuance of hard work and high feeding, have produced; those hounds which may be down in their eyes, or such as may have had fits, should have a little blood taken from them, and all of them may have a little dressing rubbed on their arms, briskets, flanks, elbows, and hocks; a moderate dose of salts may then be administered, with which some mix syrup of buckthorn, it is a very strong purgative, but I am convinced it is a thing which the stomach is a long time getting rid of, which is evident by the manner in which hounds lap water, when out, for many days after, therefore no favourite of mine. Strong exercise, after the effects of the physic have worked off, must be given, for at least six or seven hours daily. Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so happy as to persuade others to imbibe the same taste; but I should prefer hunting the whole of the long frosts, providing there was snow sufficient to counteract the concussion from the hard ground. One anecdote I have recorded of killing a fox in the snow, which was ancle deep, and I can assure my readers, that I have repeatedly gone out in large woodlands, when it lay much thicker on the ground, and enjoyed excellent sport; of course I am not trying to prove that it is as practicable for a man to ride over a country in a deep snow, as in open weather, but I am thoroughly convinced from experience, that hounds had much better be, employed in rummaging the extensive district of woods which some hunting countries are blessed with, during a long frost, providing the snow is sufficiently deep, than crawling about the lanes and roads in the immediate vicinity of their kennel for two short hours, and spending the rest of the day on their benches,. 2 N

NO. CXV.-VOL. XIX.

while the men who have the care of them are getting rid of their extra leisure, at the nearest public house. There is very frequently a most excellent scent in a snow; I recollect some years since, when Mr. Warde hunted Berkshire, seeing a capital run from that well known cover, Stype, near Hungerford; we met late, and after drawing some time, found on the hanging side towards the Kennet, which we crossed twice, and after a very severe run, were unfortunately defeated, by changing our fox in Marlborough forest. The snow, which was much drifted, was above three feet. deep in many places, and I recollect William Neverd, who was at that time Mr. Warde's huntsman, making one or two excellent hits himself by the fox's pads. The Winter of 1813-14, which must be still in the remembrance of most sportsmen as affording less open weather during the hunting months than may have been known for half a century, was perhaps one of the hardest recorded in the memory of man ; I can just recollect that the whole country had the appearance of Salisbury plain, only for the trees; gates, hedges, and even rivers were in many places invisible, and the snow being frozen extremely hard, it was an easy matter to ride over fences, and other hidden dangers, without the labour of jumping. During a great part of that dreadful season, the Pytchley hounds, then the property of Lord Althorp, hunted the Northamptonshire woodlands regularly, having excellent sport, and killing many foxes; one run in particular, which was over a good open country, is worthy of being recorded; the fox was found at Weekly-hall-wood, and he was killed near to Wilmer-park; nor did any accidents of consequence occur during the whole of this severe weather, excepting in the above-mentioned run, while the hounds were crossing a canal, near to a lock, the ice broke by the pressure of so large a body, and one of them dived under the ice and was lost; the cavalry too, escaped unhurt, with the exception of one of the whip's horses, called Blinker, being staked from the snow breaking under him, which misfortune happened in an other run; and which might have occurred at any time where the banks are rotten, in open weather. The following anecdote was copied from the Forfar paper.

"On Tuesday, the 3d instant, the Fife Hounds met at Logie, and found a brace of foxes in the Muir, but could not press them, the morning being stormy, and ground stained by sheep. Afterwards they drew blank all the neighbouring covers, and late in the afternoon found a fox in the plantations of Bridge of Murthel. Sauve qui pent being the order of the day, reynard retreated into the woods of Inchwan, but was speedily dislodged;-thence fled northwards across a heavy country, followed by the hounds at their best pace, keeping west of Deuchar, through Glenquiech, to the top of the hill of Ogil, nearly six

miles from where he was originally found. Further pursuit being impracticable, from the depth of the snow, the field reluctantly came to a resolution of "nolle prosecui." It being a decided case of “no yo” among the prads, "Merry John," fertile in expedients, instantly dismounted; that laudable example was followed by the whipper-in, Jack Jones. Leaving their horses on the hill, both pricked the footsteps of the hounds through the snow, nearly four miles up Glenogil, when fortunately they fell in with the pack, after they had eaten their fox-a pad or two being the sole remnants of the banquet : these were carefully treasured up, and will doubtless find a niche beside "Rival,"* in Sandie Ross's hunt parlour. We believe Mr. Walker's pedestrian performance quite unparalleled in the annals of hunting.

With regard to scent, I never yet could meet with any person who could satisfactorily prove to me how it is produced, or in what way the atmosphere affects the increase or diminution of it. Scent is well known to exist in all weathers, and with the air at all temperatures; I have seen a most brilliant scent, in the hardest black frost at Christmas, and also under the scorching influence of the sun in the months. of April and May; I have witnessed a total absence of it in the gloomy and soft misling damp of November; and in the boisterous and drying. winds of March, I have known hounds to run for an hour, as if they had been tied to a fox. The Spring, with the exception of the period when the blustering March winds set in, generally produces better runs than any other part of the year; but I have also known the day to produce a good scent, even during that tempestuous season. I was once riding to cover in a perfect hurricane in March, and calling at the house of a friend to breakfast, observed to him that it would be quite useless to attempt to hunt; as the air was so piercing, and the wind so tremendously strong, that I could with difficulty keep my cap on my head, and consequently there could be no scent; he smiled, and said I was much mistaken, as there was a most burning scent, which he had proved, having had a most capital run just before; the fact was, he had started his gardener, with a quarter of an hour's law, in a circle of about two miles, round his park, and had then hunted him with two blood-hounds which he kept; away they went in right good style, and the affrighted gardener had only just time to escape into a tree near the house, as

"Yelled on the view the opening pack."

My friend's conjectures proved perfectly true; notwithstanding the continuance of the storm, we threw off; it was a large deep woodland • “Rival,” a celebrated hound in Lord Panmure's pack-his painting inter alias graces the hunt parlour at Forfar, immediately behind the Chairman's seat.

where we found, but the fox, which was no doubt a traveller, faced the wind in a most determined manner, and we killed him, after fiftyfive minutes hard running, close to Bromsgrove Lickey. What impressed it more particularly on my mind, was, that we had to ride a distance of twenty-five miles home afterwards. The general indications of a good scent are,-when the hounds smell strong when they come out in a morning; and when they puke on their road to cover; if the pavement sweats or looks damp; more frequently on the barometer rising, than when it is the reverse; when the horses are faint on their road to the cover side; in a black frost the scent is frequently good, but in a white one, when it is going off there is seldom any; frosty mornings, with stormy weather after mid-day, are seldom favourable to sport; and if a large black cloud comes suddenly over, the scent generally fails during its influence. One poet tells us, that "a southerly wind and a cloudy sky" are necessary for a good day's sport; while another describes one of the best days ever seen in Leicestershire as taking place "with the wind at north-east, forbidingly keen."

If the distances are very long to cover, it is sometimes necessary for the hounds and horses to be taken on over night; but to some gentlemen who may keep what is termed a three day pack, this may be very inconvenient; as having only one body to draw from, by sending them to lie out, many of the hounds will very frequently not get even one cear day's rest between the hunting days. This difficulty may be remedied, by having them conveyed on the morning of hunting in a carriage built like a caravan, with a large dickey in front, capable of containing three persons abreast, with a small boot underneath to hold caps, whips, great coats, or any thing else which it may be necessary to convey in it. I believe Lord Southampton, when that nobleman hunted Leicestershire, was the first sportsman who introduced this method of conveying the pack to cover, which has since been adopted by other masters of hounds. It is undoubtedly economical in the end, in the wear and tear of hounds, as by thus saving them so many miles of road work in bad weather, they will be enabled to undergo an additional day's labour in each fortnight or even oftener; where the utmost distance to the place of meeting does not exceed eleven or twelve miles, it is of little consequence, but the constant habit of travelling hounds a long way to cover in a morning, and dragging them home in the dark, for upwards of twenty miles, cuts them up, an jades them infinitely more than most persons are aware of.

A huntsman should take especial care never to let his hounds lie down, even for an instant, upon the cold ground, particularly on their return from hunting; if it is very late, and necessary to call at any inn or other place for gruel for the horses, the more advisable plan is, if the