On Hunting. My huntfman is very exact; he carries always a lift of his hounds in his pocket, and when in a diftant country, he looks it over to fee if any of them be miffing. He has also a book, in which he keeps a regular account where every fox is found, 'and where he is killed, Your huntfman, knowing perfectly the country he has to hunt, let him thea acquire as perfect a knowledge of his hounds; good fenfe and obfervation will do the reft, at least, they will do as much as you feem to require of him; for it is better to depend upon the goodness of your hounds for fport, than the genius of your buntfman. It is, believe me, a much furer dependance. Let not your expectations be too fanguine, when you think you fhall have no occafion for bag-foxes, to keep your hounds in blood the firft feafon. It may be as well, perhaps not to turn them all out, till you can be more certain that your young pack will keep good and steady without them. When blood is much wanted, and they are tired with a hard day, one of thefe foxes will put them into fpirits, and give them as it were, new ftrength and vigour. 33 quently, I think, be traced to another caufe, namely, their being out of blood; nor can there be any other reafon affigned why hounds, which we know to be good, fhould remain, fo long, as they fometimes do, without killing a fox. "A pack of hounds," fays Mr. Beckford in his thoughts upon hunting, "that bad been a month without killing a fox, at laft ran one to ground, which they dug and killed upon the earth. The next feven days they hunted, they killed a fox each day." Large packs are leaft fubject to this inconvenience; hounds that are quite fresh, and in high fpirits, leaft feel the want of blood. The imalleft packs, therefore, fhould be able to leave at least ten or twelve couple of hounds behind them, to be fresh against the next hunting day. If your hounds be much out of blood, give them reft: take this opportunity to hunt with other, hounds; to fee how they are managed; to obferve what ftallion hounds they have, and to judge yourself, whether they be fuch as it is fit for you to breed from. If what I have now recommended fhould not fucceed; if a little reft and a fine morning do not put your hounds into tlood again, I know of nothing elfe that will. In my next, I fhall have fomething further to fay on the blood. neceffary for a pack of fox-hounds, which I fhall take the firft opportunity of tranfmitting; and,, in the mean time, with every, good wish for the future fuccefs of your pleafing performance, I remain, Gentlemen, What I call being out of blood, is, that no fox-hound, in my opinion, can fail of killing more than three or four times following, without being visibly the worfe for it. When hounds are out of blood, there is a kind of evil genius attending all they do; and though they may feem to hunt as well as ever, they do not get forward; whilft a pack of fox-hounds, well in blood, like troops flushed with conqueft, are not easily withfteod. What we call ill luck, day after day, when hounds kill no foxes, may fre- Oct. 9, 1795. VOL, VII, No. XXXVII. E Your fincere friend, ACASTUS. A BRACE 34 A Brace of Singular Sportsmen. A BRACE of SINGULAR SPORTSMEN. tain the precife time of his journey, which may be found in feveral maps; but paffing over the Alps, he was tuck with what the To the EDITORS of the Sporting French call un coup de foleil, the Magaziue. GENTLEMEN, HAVE frequently obferved in your entertaining Mifcellany, many eccentric characters pourtrayed, permit me, for the entertainment of your readers to delineate a sketch of two defun& oddities, who were, during their An ODDITY HUNTER. I SHALL begin with Walking Webb. This gentleman peregrinated on foot to Rome, (after croffing the channel) and returned in the fame manner. He was a man of an eafy fortune, and lived up to it, but in a very extraordinary manner. He was a bon vivant, though he was neither an epicure nor a bacchanalian. rays of the fon being fo intenfe they literally addled his brain, and he fell a martyr to his perfeverance in walking over Eu rope. Whig Middleton was the other extraneous being. He was a fine, tall, handfome mau, poffeffed a genteel fortune, but being one night at Arthur's, and having a run of ill luck, he loft about a thousand guineas at play. He was greatly chagrined and the late Lord Montford rallying him upon it, afked him, jocularly, in the gaming phrafe, "What would he do, or what would he not do to get home." "By G-d, my lord," faid he, "prefcribe your own terms." Why, refumed Lord Montford, "I don't know a greater mortification to you than to compel you to drefs directly oppofite to all fashion for ten years, will you agree to it for a thousand guineas ?" "I will, my lord."-Whig Middieton received the money down upon the nail, and pocketed the affront. But what was far more extraordinary, and the leaft expected, he, to the great aftonishment of all his acquaintance, (Whig) being one of the greatest maccaronies of the day, fulfilled his engagement, and nine years afterwards died in the most unfashionable state He refided at Windfor, and every day walked to town without a waistcoat or great coat, attended by two livery fervants, to whom he never allowed any livery waistcoats, nor did they dare appear in any before him. He would frequently remain at White's playing at whift, his fervants conftantly waiting for him, without allowing them any din-imaginable, that is he did not owe ner, or even refreshment, until three or four in the morning; he would himself feed upon raifins and almonds. Not fatisfied with his first itinerant tour to Italy, he returned a fecond time, in the fame manner, in order to afcer one farthing to a tradefman, left fome play debts unattended, and his coat and wig were of the cut of queen Anne's reign. Lord Montford, it is faid, died in a very different, but quite fashionable manner. THE THE FEAST OF WIT; OR, SPORTSMAN'S HALL. ON WI T. THERE has not, perhaps, been greater variety of opinions, upon any subject, than refpecting the ingredients that conftitute real wit; nor any definitions more numerous than thofe of this faculty. One author afferts, that it results from novelty and furprife of the idea, independent of its cloathing; and that what is wit in one ftyle or language, will confequently be fo in any other. By another writer, it is declared to confift, not fo much in the originality or point of the thought, as in the aptnefs or felicity of its expreffion; that it is • Nature to advantage dress'd; What oft was thought, but ne'er fo well exprefs'd: whilft a third, whofe productions are fertile in acknowledged fpecimens of wit, maintains that punning is a real and excellent fpecies of it; and that thofe only decry. and under-rate puns who are deficient in the pleasurable talent of making them -For our own part, we are fo much the votaries of mirth, and the lovers of sport, good humour, fpirit, and hilarity, in which ever of these shapes they appear, that we shall tes we have before promised) never hesitate to introduce to our fporting friends, whatever applies to the rifible faculties, and excites mirth; nor fhall we fo clofely examine under what clafs of wit our pleafantries rank, as the degree of amufement they are capable of producing: but it ftill fhall be our ftudy, as it ever has been, to ferve up fuch dishes as may be moft palatable to the lovers of mirth and harmony. FR ANECDOTE. REDERICK, the late King of Pruffia, had given out in general orders, that no officer hould be abfent from quarters a particular masquerade night A Lieutenant, who was very fond of that amusement, had made a party to go to it previous to this order; and fup. pofing, as he went in the character of a German boor, he could not be known. The king had been but a very fhort time at the mafquerade, before he knew this officer, and went up to him in a very eafy manner, faying, "who are you, countryman?" The officer immediately obferving the king, knew him, was rather difcompofed at the queftion, but recollecting himself, whispered to him, "I am a lieutenant-but he is a rafcal that repeats it again. The king, who was at the time in a mask, was pleased with a reply fo much in charac ter, took no further notice of it at that time; but a few days after when he saw the lieutenant, ordered him to be called, and told him, he was appointed a captain, but added, at the fame time, "You are a rafcal if you repeat it again." The following very curious advertisement is copied from the Bahama Gazette, of June the 30th: "Whereas the fubfcriber, through a pernicious habit of drinking for many years, has greatly hurt himself in purfe and perfon, and rendered himfelf odious to all his acquaintance; E 2 finding 36 The Feast of Wit; or, Sportsman's Hall. finding there is no poffibility of breaking off from the faid prac tice, but through impoffibility to find the liquor, he therefore earneftly begs and prays, that, in future, no perfon will fell him either for money or on truft, any fort of fpirituous liquors, as he will not in future pay it, but will profecute any one for an action of damage against the temporal and eternal intereft of the public's humble, ferious, fober, fervant, "When Prince Conzago di Caftiglione was in England, he dined in company with Doctor Johnfon, at the houfe of a common friend, and thinking it was a polite, as well as a gay thing to drink the Doctor's health, with fome proof that he had read his works, called out from the top of the table to the bottom (that table filled with company)-to your good health, Mr. Vagabond !" It is almost unneceffary to mention, that the Prince meant a compliment to the celebrated work of the Rambler, but mistook the phrafe from inattention to fynonimy. ANECDOTE. Lord Tyrawley, little before his death, was vifited by feveral Englishmen, who came with a pretence of afking him how he did, but in reality, to fee if he was dying, that they might apply for his employments. The old General, who comprehended their motives for being fo folicitous about him, gave them the following aufwer: Gentlemen, I know your reafon for inquiring about my health. I have but two things worth any one's having-my regiment and my girl, neither of which will fall to your lot: I'll tell you how they will be difpofed of a Scotchman will get the one, and an Irishman the other." being accused of certain high The Feast of Wit; or Sportfman's Hall. trefs, affured her that if the whole globe was his, he would lay it at her feet. Voltaire, fpeaking of the generality of modern orators, fays, "What they want in depth, they give us in length." At Tinterden, in Kent, a dancing mafter advertifes to teach young gentleman foldiers the art of walking to quick time, with the addition of rendering them capable, in three leffons, if ever fo inactive, to make good their retreat. Of a man who was ftuffed full of puritanism, a perfon expreffed a doubt whether he had any religion in his heart. How can it be in his heart, fays another, when it's always in his mouth? Jack-Ketch, in his late addrefs to the court at the Old Bailey, in which he very pathetically pourtrayed his fituation in confequence of the badness of the times, was asked by a friend why he did not employ counfel."Counfel!" cried Jack, "they are the very fellows that ruin my bufinefs, many a good customer they cheat me out of." The Covent Garden gentry, who contrived to burn down St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, have the modefty to expect that his grace of Bedford, will rebuild them a fine new Church, upon fire-proof principles. A certain deputy's wife, well known for her, economy, exhibited her ufual fcantinefs a few days ago, at a common-council dinner. Her husband remon 37 frated even before his guests, and added, among other complaints, "that he never faw a goofe at the bottom of his table, but on Mi. chaelmas dav." "Nay, gentlemen," replied the lady, you can deny-for you will fee one there every day he dines at home." 66 that A French conftitutional pricft, who had ufually a very fmall audience, was one day preaching at the church in his village, when the doors being open, a gander and feveral geefe came talking up the middle aifle. The preacher, availing himself of the circumstance, obferved, he could no longer find fault with his diftrict for non-attendance, because, though they did not come themfelves, they had sent their reprefentatives. A provincial paper, in the agricultural report, makes the following pithy remark, viz. that "the small feed crops, this year, are not large;" which reminds us of the curious obfervation an Hibernian once made to his taylor, that his great coat was a little too big." In Faulkner's Dublin Journal, an apartment is advertised to be let in Cut Purfe Row, to which is added, by way of nota bene, "very convenient for an attorney." Prophets are a very plentiful article in an English market, at the prefent day. A Mr. George Turner, of Leeds, as bad the lanthorn of his infpiration lighted up, and is now offering peep into the dark corners of futurity, in a two-penny pamphlet, "by command of the Lord." EXTRA |