TRAITS OF THE FOX AND THE RED DEER.

WITH SOME REMARKS ON HUNTING GENERALLY.

BY THE HONOURABLE GRANTLEY F. BERKELEY, M.P.

In many of our pastimes and pleasures connected with the sports of the field, wherein the hound forms the chief source of gratification, men, who style themselves huntsmen, are too often apt to think that, if they have a hard head and fast heels, they are in possession of all that is required to entitle them to be esteemed a proficient in the noble art of woodcraft; whereas, in real truth, a fool may equally mar, or fail to elicit the true beauties of the chase, as well as he may mystify the deliberations of the senate, or ruin, with the rude hand of ignorance, any of the more beautiful arrangements of art or nature. It is not any of the isolated facts of screaming as you go, blowing the horn, hearing and seeing the hounds, riding over fences, or distancing competitors, that render the chase the most agreeable pastime in the world; but it is a mixture of them all, with a thorough knowledge of the nature of the pursuing and pursued, and a keen and quick comprehension of passing events, crowded and hurried as they quickly succeed each other on the mind of the able observer; together with a general love of nature, of her beautiful face, and the sweet perfumes which arise from her embosomed woods and flowers, which render the huntingfield so delicious to the different senses of the sensible

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