SPORTING BY NIMROD.
MAN is a hunting animal : his whole life is a chase. The excite- ment of pursuit and the exercise of superiority, the two principal ingredients in the sports of the field, are among the strongest pro- pensities of his being. Whether his object be mental or physical gratification, it is the stimulus of seeking and showing, not the sa- tisfaction of possessing, that constitutes the charm of existence. Men of studious habits and delicate sensibilities, who prefer intel- lectual to animal excitement, (themselves sportsmen alter another fashion,) may protest against the folly and cruelty of hunting; but who, having once felt the wild Kush of enthusiasm pervading his frame, when, mounted on a hot and fiery steed that partakes of the rider's spirit, he is borne onwards with the speed of flight, amidst a throng of huntsmen as eager asshiniself, with the pack in full cry before him, ever decried the joys of hunting—at least while he was able to share them? The pleasures of the chase have seldom been treated with common justice : the authors who bast written, and the poets who have sung them, were more at home in the easy chair than the saddle. But in these latter days the sportsmen have caught up the pen, and commenced a litera- ture of their own ; the Coryphteus of the covers:side taking the nom de chasse of NIMROD. This crack writer, aided by a select few literati of the sporting world, has turned out a large and handsome quarto, which for information, amusement, and pic- torial beauty, may vie with any of the Annuals—for with that tribe of picture-books it will be numbered, if duly encouraged. About a score of sporting scenes, painted mostly by ABRAHAM COOPER and HANCOCK, With a sketch or two by EDWIN LAND. SEER and JOHN LEWIS, serve as graphic texts for NIMROD and his
coadjutors to discourse upon : and this they do in a very pleasant, lively, gossiping manner, relieving dry technicalities with anec- dote and adventure ; so that their descriptions are as interesting to the uninitiated as to the "knowing ones"—perhaps more so.
Nimaon's contributions are by far the most numerous and im- portant : but the brief specimens of the authors of the Oakteigh Shooting Code and the Shoo(er's Companion make us desire more. The most entertaining contributors, however, are two writers who are any thing but sportsmen : TH051AS HOOD—who would be pronounced " a rum jockey" on the turf—draws forth peals of laughter in an " Ass-race,' which GAINSBOROUGH'S well-known picture illustrates with characteristic humour : in praise of fishing, be ritigs the changes on every word that can be tortured to a
double meaning, till sound and sense are ludicrously confounded to the extremest degree of perplexity. The half-sentimental, half- humorous description of Epsom Races on the Derby day, is evi- dently written by one (H AMILTON REYNOLDS, we suspect) who is more given to versing than betting. NIMROD'S sketch of Con- tinental sporting, though slight, contains some interesting parti- culars; but his picture of fox-hunting is the most attractive to the general reader. What a contrast to the fox-hunter of the old schoul—" a brute in the morning and a sot in the evening' —does the modern Meltonian present ! Not only is the dissipation, but the danger of fox-hunting lessened. Hark to NIMROD on the • PERILS OF HUNTING.
From the great strength, as well as the peculiar nature of the Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, and Northatuptonshire fences, the Meltonian gets many falls in the course of the season. Here coolness comes to his aid, and it is even ac. counted an accomplishment to be able to frill well. Instead of lesing hold of his reint, and abandoning his horte to his own will, as the man who is much flurried at this moment invariably does, the cool sportsman not only keeps them fast in his band, and thus secures hi s horse, but when he perceives him likely to roll over or upon his person, be frequently saves himself from injury by shoving himself along the ground, out of his reach—obtaining the fulcrum to enable him to do so from the rolling body of his horse." In other cases of peril, independent Of getting clear of his horse, the art of fulling well saves many a bone from being broken, if not dislocated necks. Next to a blown horse coming neck-and-croup over a high timber fence, a fail in galloping at full speed is most dangerous, and apt to dislocate the neck or produce a concus- sion of the brain, by the head of the rider coining to the ground before any other part of his body ; and from the velocity of the fall there is little time fur precaution. The practised faller, however, if such a term can be allowed me, breaka the violence of this concussion by putting out both Lis hands, and rolliog himself, as it were, from off his saddle. By so doing, the collar-bone may be, and often is, fractured ; hut that is an accident of temporary inconvenience, and unattended with danger ; whereas a broken neck is very rarely reduced. But it is a curious fact, that there are much fewer instances of broken necks in the field in the present age, than there were nearly a century ago, notwith- standing that for one man who rode a-hunting then there are fifty now; and the pace of hounds, as well as style of riding, is much alteted as to speed. This has been accounted for in two ways : fist, the modern sportsman sits, for the most part, down on his saddle ; whereas he of olden times stood up in his stirrups' and when his horse fell with him in his gallop, was nearly certain to fall on his head ; secondly, he did not ride the well-bred, superiorly-actioned horse, that the modern sportsman rides; which would account for his falling oftener in his gallop, and pattieularly as the surface of the country, in his day, Was uncultivated and uneven, compared to what it now is. Neither was the generallv-adopted bunting-cap of much service to Lim in falla of this descrip- tion. On the contrary, film, its being • so low in the crown, as it was then made, coining in immediate contact with the top of the Ittad, the concussion was greater, if he woe thrown on his head, than if it bad been cased in a hat, which from the depth of it would breakthe concussion from the fall.
The would-be Meltonian, however, should count the cost of the modern system. This is NIMROD'S estimate of the
REQUISITES OF A HUNTING ESTABLISHMENT.
The Meltonian never takes the field without having sent two hunters to the place of meeting ; one of which he rides the first Most, whilst his pad-groom, on the other, contrives to meet him at some point, should the course of the chase admit of hi, doing so, or to follow him in his wake, so judiciously as to bring him a comparatively fresh horse to mount at the first or second cheek. This is chiefly in his power to do, by having the fences broken down fur him by the crowd which has preceded him, as well as his quiet style of riding ; by the dif- ference of weight between himself and his roaster, generally much in his favour ; and by his being invariably a good horseman, or he would not be selected for this purpose. The stud of the Meltonian averages twelve hunters and two hacks, (although, in the stables of a few, double the number of the former may be found ;) the average annual expenses of which amounts to about a thousand pounds per annum. All those gentlemen, however, whose weight, with their saddles, ex- ceeds twelve stone, cannot be said to be well horsed, unless they have fourteen or sixteen seasoned hunters in their stables; and for this good reason,—duriog open weather, the packs of Mr. Errington (late Sir Harry Good' icke s,,, Lord Forester (late Duke of Rutland's), Lord Lonsdale, and the Pychley, are every day to be reached ; and, from the strength of their respective countries, some portion of their stud are always out of work from accidents. The stud of the late Earl of Plymouth, although a very light weight, always exceeded twenty. The style of living of the Meltonian varies with his situation in life, more than with his means, because, without ample means, he cannot long enjoy that I distinguished appellation. If a single man, he is either a member of one of the club., or keeps house himself. In the first case, his in-door otablishinent con. sista of merely an accomplished valet ; in the next, of a first-rate man-cook. • • A Meltonian cannot be a very dissipated man—for any length of time at least, if he were disposed to be so; for his severe exercise obliges hint to be temperate and take his 'mime' share of rest. Let any one visit Melton Mow- bray at midnight, and he will find the streets quiet auti as many houses shut up for the night as he would find in the most obscure town of Great Britain. IbieLet him also, if he should be so fortunate as to have the alert', observe the generally elegant, always correct, deportment of the parties assembled at the Various dinner-parties of the day. Did he expect to find horses and hounds the prevailing tomes of discourse, he would be satisfied he had made a wron4 esti- mate of the character and accomplishments of modern fix-hunters ; tor he Would seldom hear much said of either one or the other, unless it were to ae- • The celebrated sportsman and rider, Mr. J. A. Smith, says," Nothing is so low as fore man to be seen naming after his horse, crying out ' Stop my hire.' '1' There have been, and particularly hi latter times, is few eiterotions to this general Tido, nili,41 have given pain to the oltbestablishea froomenters of this eripaciura of lox. atter.y c Street rows should be Confined to the rrolatie at vulgar, tEd to the 1, otriciau count fi r some certain occurrences of the day, which were worthy of being made the subjects of discussion ; and, in truth, fox-hunting furnishes a great many such, that are highly intereating to sportsmen as well alto others who are not insensible to the qualities and perfections of those noble animals the dog and the horse. As may be supposed, the games of wbiet and 6carte form part of an evening's amusement at Melton ; and, occasionally, for rather high stakes, which will always be more or less the case in society in which money is plentiful, and the possessors of it are in the prime of their lives : but the de- testable vice of gambling is far from being the characteristic of the Melton Mowbray community. Neither is music altogether neglected in this far-famed fox-hunting coterie; although, as the late Lord Forester very aptly observed. the best music a well-mounted Meltonian can hear in the months of December and January—fearful ones to the fox-hunter—is the sound of women's patter's in the streets.
What would our ancestors have thought of a valet and a man. cook forming part of the suite of a fox-hunter! But though fashion has metamorphosed the jolter-beaded, roystering squire5 into a finished exquisite, and made proficiency in manly sports an attribute of modern dandyism, the pursuit of game is still vitiated by the passion for gaming. NIMROD, on behalf of his brother sportsmen, may give " the cut direct" to the Marquis of WATERFORD and his fellow rioters; but he dares not disavow the propensity to gambling. The plates are more laboured than spirited. COOPER'S minia- ture pictures are highly finished, but tame and portrait-like; exact, so far as the animals and the landscape are concerned, but wanting the fire and energy of the chase. There are more of action and sporting character in HANCOCK'S designs; but he seems to paint with one eye to nature and the other looking at LANDSEER; so between the two he is apt to miss the truth. Studies of a couple of sagacious fox-hounds, by Joust LEWIS, and of a goat browsing, by EDWIN LANDSHER, are the most striking plates : being engraved on a larger scale and in a freer style, they have a more vigorous character. The vignette head and tail- pieces, by 13Aartxun, are badly cut in wood ; but two after LAND- SEER (though one of them is almost spoiled) are inimitable: witness the supercilious air of the pampered pug guarding his master's slippers, and the disconsolate look and action of the hound howling out his lamentations at the loss of his young master, drowned, we infer from seeing the child's feather floating in the stream.
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