_Vocat ingenti clamore Cithaeron,
Taygetique canes._
VIRG. _Georg._ iii. ver. 43.
The echoing hills and chiding hounds invite.
Those who have searched into human nature observe that nothing so much
shows the nobleness of the soul as that its felicity consists in action.
Every man has such an active principle in him, that he will find out
something to employ himself upon, in whatever place or state of life he
is posted. I have heard of a gentleman who was under close confinement in
the Bastile seven years; during which time he amused himself in
scattering a few small pins about his chamber, gathering them up again,
and placing them in different figures on the arm of a great chair. He
often told his friends afterwards, that unless he had found out this
piece of exercise, he verily believed he should have lost his senses.
After what has been said, I need not inform my readers that Sir Roger,
with whose character I hope they are at present pretty well acquainted,
has in his youth gone through the whole course of those rural diversions
which the country abounds in; and which seem to be extremely well suited
to that laborious industry a man may observe here in a far greater degree
than in towns and cities. I have before hinted at some of my friend's
exploits: he has in his youthful days taken forty coveys of partridges
in a season; and tired many a salmon with a line consisting but of a
single hair. The constant thanks and good wishes of the neighbourhood
always attended him, on account of his remarkable enmity towards foxes;
having destroyed more of those vermin in one year, than it was thought
the whole country could have produced. Indeed the Knight does not scruple
to own among his most intimate friends, that in order to establish his
reputation this way, he has secretly sent for great numbers of them out
of other counties, which he used to turn loose about the country by
night, that he might the better signalise himself in their destruction
the next day. His hunting horses were the finest and best managed[104] in
all these parts: his tenants are still full of the praises of a grey
stone-horse[105] that unhappily staked[106] himself several years since,
and was buried with great solemnity in the orchard.
Sir Roger, being at present too old for fox-hunting, to keep himself in
action, has disposed of his beagles and got a pack of stop-hounds[107].
What these want in speed, he endeavours to make amends for by the
deepness of their mouths[108] and the variety of their notes, which are
suited in such manner to each other, that the whole cry[109] makes up a
complete concert. He is so nice[110] in this particular, that a
gentleman having made him a present of a very fine hound the other day,
the Knight returned it by the servant with a great many expressions of
civility; but desired him to tell his master, that the dog he had sent
was indeed a most excellent bass, but that at present he only wanted a
counter-tenor[111]. Could I believe my friend had ever read Shakespeare,
I should certainly conclude he had taken the hint from Theseus in the
_Midsummer Night's Dream_.
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flu'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew.
Crook-knee'd and dew-lap'd like Thessalian bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouths like bells,
Each under each: a cry more tuneable
Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn.
Sir Roger is so keen at this sport, that he has been out almost every day
since I came down; and upon the chaplain's offering to lend me his easy
pad, I was prevailed on yesterday morning to make one of the company. I
was extremely pleased, as we rid along, to observe the general
benevolence[112] of all the neighbourhood towards my friend. The farmer's
sons thought themselves happy if they could open a gate for the good old
Knight as he passed by; which he generally requited with a nod or a
smile, and a kind inquiry after their fathers and uncles.
After we had rid about a mile from home, we came upon a large heath, and
the sportsmen began to beat. They had done so for some time, when as I
was at a little distance from the rest of the company, I saw a hare pop
out from a small furze-brake almost under my horse's feet. I marked the
way she took, which I endeavoured to make the company sensible of by
extending my arm; but to no purpose, until Sir Roger, who knows that none
of my extraordinary motions are insignificant, rode up to me, and asked
me if puss was gone that way? Upon my answering "Yes," he immediately
called in the dogs, and put them upon the scent. As they were going off,
I heard one of the country fellows muttering to his companion, "That it
was a wonder they had not lost all their sport, for want of the silent
gentleman's crying 'Stole away[113].'"
This, with my aversion to leaping hedges, made me withdraw to a rising
ground, from whence I could have the pleasure of the whole chase, without
the fatigue of keeping in with the hounds. The hare immediately threw
them above a mile behind her; but I was pleased to find, that instead of
running straight forwards, or, in hunter's language, flying the country,
as I was afraid she might have done, she wheeled about, and described a
sort of circle round the hill where I had taken my station, in such
manner as gave me a very distinct view of the sport. I could see her
first pass by, and the dogs some time afterwards unravelling the whole
track she had made, and following her through all her doubles. I was at
the same time delighted in observing that deference which the rest of
the pack paid to each particular hound, according to the character he had
acquired amongst them: if they were at a fault, and an old hound of
reputation opened but once, he was immediately followed by the whole cry;
while a raw dog, or one who was a noted liar, might have yelped his heart
out without being taken notice of.
The hare now, after having squatted two or three times, and been put up
again as often, came still nearer to the place where she was at first
started. The dogs pursued her, and these were followed by the jolly
Knight, who rode upon a white gelding, encompassed by his tenants and
servants, and cheering his hounds with all the gaiety of five and twenty.
One of the sportsmen rode up to me, and told me that he was sure the
chase was almost at an end, because the old dogs, which had hitherto lain
behind, now headed the pack. The fellow was in the right. Our hare took a
large field just under us, followed by the full cry in view. I must
confess the brightness of the weather, the cheerfulness of everything
around me, the chiding of the hounds, which was returned upon us in a
double echo from two neighbouring hills, with the hallooing of the
sportsmen and the sounding of the horn, lifted my spirits into a most
lively pleasure, which I freely indulged because I knew it was innocent.
If I was under any concern, it was on the account of the poor hare, that
was now quite spent and almost within the reach of her enemies; when the
huntsman, getting forward, threw down his pole[114] before the dogs.
They were now within eight yards of that game which they had been
pursuing for almost as many hours; yet on the signal before mentioned
they all made a sudden stand, and though they continued opening as much
as before, durst not once attempt to pass beyond the pole. At the same
time Sir Roger rode forward, and alighting, took up the hare in his arms;
which he soon delivered to one of his servants, with an order, if she
could be kept alive, to let her go in his great orchard; where it seems
he has several of these prisoners of war, who live together in a very
comfortable captivity. I was highly pleased to see the discipline of the
pack, and the good nature of the Knight, who could not find in his heart
to murder a creature that had given him so much diversion.
[Illustration: Chearing his Hounds with all the Gaiety of Five and
Twenty]
As we were returning home, I remembered that Monsieur Paschal[115] in his
most excellent discourse on "the misery of man," tells us, that "all our
endeavours after greatness proceed from nothing but a desire of being
surrounded by a multitude of persons and affairs that may hinder us from
looking into ourselves, which is a view we cannot bear." He afterwards
goes on to show that our love of sports comes from the same reason, and
is particularly severe upon hunting. "What," says he, "unless it be to
drown thought, can make men throw away so much time and pains upon a
silly animal, which they might buy cheaper in the market?" The foregoing
reflection is certainly just, when a man suffers his whole mind to be
drawn into his sports, and altogether loses himself in the woods; but
does not affect those who propose a far more laudable end for this
exercise; I mean, the preservation of health, and keeping all the organs
of the soul in a condition to execute her orders. Had that incomparable
person, whom I last quoted, been a little more indulgent to himself in
this point, the world might probably have enjoyed him much longer:
whereas, through too great an application to his studies in his youth, he
contracted that ill habit[116] of body, which, after a tedious sickness,
carried him off in the fortieth year of his age; and the whole history we
have of his life till that time, is but one continued account of the
behaviour of a noble soul struggling under innumerable pains and
distempers.
For my own part, I intend to hunt twice a week during my stay with Sir
Roger; and shall prescribe the moderate use of this exercise to all my
country friends, as the best kind of physic for mending a bad
constitution, and preserving a good one.