IT was said of Shakspeare, that he was not to be tried by any code of critic laws; as much as to say, such a genius as his could "rise to faults critics dare not mend." How then can I presume to pass my feeble judgment on Mr. Ralph Lambton as a huntsman to fox-hounds, knowing, as I do, that his pack is one of the very highest character, and that he has always hunted them himself. Wisdom, says the proverb, is the produce of experience; and if such men as himself and Lord Darlington* have not learned their trade, this maxim does not hold good, for they have served exactly five apprenticeships to the art. It must also be remembered, that the prowess of a huntsman is not confined to the operations of the field. A skilful General is as great in council as he is in action; and unless a hunts man be clever in his kennel, he does but half what is required of him. He may have sport, for that is often the consequence of fortuitous circumstances such as country, &c.-and he may kill his foxes; but he never will have a really good and steady pack of foxhounds.

Optimism is not allowed even to the very Author of nature. There are very few cases, says a philoso pher, in which, if we permit ourselves to range in possibilities, we cannot suppose something more perfect than we see. Combining, however, the duties of the kennel and the field, I am bound to give Mr. Ralph Lambton the credit of

being premier artiste in this line, and in the first class of English huntsmen now going. In some respects he is not exactly a Jack Musters-as AMATEUR styles that accomplished sportsman" par excellence," as he says. Neither his voice nor his language to his hounds is so good and so cheering; indeed, now and then, I heard a halloo peculiar to himself; but he is very decisive in his casts, the result of a very quick eye; and his men assist him to admiration, being always in their places. Jack Winter, first whipper-in, and huntsman in his master's absence, is a very good man with hounds, and has been with Mr. Lambton ever since he was a boy; and Bob Fenwick, with his "Get away, get away, hounds!" quite a tiptop hand, and devotedly attached to the sport. There is also a lad, whose name I forget, as second whip, an excellent horseman, and will do well by and bye. Mr. Lambton's man, Harry, who rides his second horse, is likewise of great use at certain times: so that, in a country where hounds are seldom out of sight, it would be somewhat odd if they were not tolerably steady.

Foxes are beautifully found by these hounds. Mr. Lambton himself excels here: in drawing up to them he displays a master's hand, and when on foot they are capitally halloo'd away, by the men. Previously to this, great order is observed by the field, who, indeed, set an example I wish we could see more generally followed. They

hounds upwards of thirty years, hunting parts of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire; and I have been told by those who remembered it well, that, for fourteen or fifteen of those years, (i. e. from the time he could bestride his pony till his father gave up the hounds,) his son Jack acted as whipper-in whenever occasion required. I have also heard, from very good authority, that when Sir Henry Harpur purchased the late Mr. Musters's hounds, and the noted Shaw be gan to hunt them, he has been heard to declare that he frequently received more assistance in a critical moment from Mr. John Musters than from either of the men under him.

When the late Mr. Musters gave up his fox-hounds, he kept a pack of harriers, which the present Mr. Musters hunted for several seasons; but during this period, and indeed during the whole of his noviciate, as it may be termed, he was in the constant habit of hunting with the celebrated Mr. Meynell, who was not only partilarly attached to him, but partly considered him as his pupil. Indeed, almost one of the last acts of the sporting life of this "great man in his way," was making a present to Mr. Musters of ten couples of his prime old hounds, as a foundation of his future pack.

I have here only spoken of the present Mr. Musters with reference to his performance in the field. Now, it has been justly observed, that the fuller, the dyer, and the weaver, understand not each other's trades; notwithstanding which, between them all, a good piece of cloth is manufactured. Thus it is possible that a person may

be a superior hunter of hounds in the field, without being a mass

ter-man in his kennel; and yet the pack he hunts may be turned out in the very best style. When I was at Pitsford, it was the end of the season; the favorite bitches were gone down to the Nottinghamshire kennel, and the thing nearly at an end. The kennel at Pitsford was also four miles from Mr. Musters's house, which might account for the master's eye not being over it so often as might be desirable. In addition to this, he had for his head whipper-in Tom Smith, who had hunted Lord Middleton's pack for some seasons in Warwickshire; and he also had his house full of company: but although I make no comparisons, I see not the least reason to doubt Mr. Musters's capability to perform all the duties of a huntsman, equal to any other man in England. Indeed I will go farther than this, and say, that, cradled as he was in a kennel, he would be almost entitled to the appellation of a stupid fellow had he not perfected himself in every department of the art of breeding and feeding hounds. Now, as all the world knows he is any thing but a stupid fellow, and with zeal enough to set the world on fire, I argue, logically, that he must be a good kennel huntsman: and as to his performance in the field, not another word need be said about that. Comparisons, I repeat, are odious: therefore Ineither compare him with this man nor with that; but I hope it will not be long before I see the justly-celebrated Tom Sebright, who by all accounts is a charming fellow in the field-partaking of all the animation and keenness of his preceptor, Mr. Musters, with, as I understand, a great share of what AMATEUR calls the "instinctive knowledge of the habits of a fox.".

In the life of Somervile, there is a strange expression from the pen of the author-the great Dr. Johnson. "He writes," says he, "very well for a gentleman." Now I own I do not exactly comprehend the Doctor's meaning; for what avails an expensive education unless it sometimes turns to a good account-particularly as relates to the cultivation of the mind? But I once asked a very eminent sportsman what was his opinion of gentlemen huntsmen? and he gave it as follows:-"If gentlemen," said he, "have been amongst hounds from their infancy, and will, when they take the manage ment of them, give up their time and attention to them, the same as a common man who is uneducated, there can be no doubt which of the two will make the best huntsman; but the fact is, most gentlemen who hunt hounds have not been sufficiently amongst them till they arrive at a certain time of life, when other pursuits and avocations present themselves, and then they do not like all the drudgery of the office. For these reasons, and for these alone, we see but few good gentlemen huntsmen."

Were I to be asked my opinion of the Sedgefield country, I should almost be inclined to place it at the head of the provincials. It is flat; the fields are of a very fair size, a great portion of them between twenty and forty acres, and a good deal of very old sward: it abounds in whin coverts; indeed, I saw scarcely anything else; and the fences are for the most part practicable. To South country horses they may be a little awkward, as for the most part they are placed upon banks, and the V (letter V)

fly.

styles are frequent. It is also considered a good scenting country, as most countries in the neighbourhood of the sea are; and it must be favorable to hounds, as there are no large coverts in which they can run riot. Thus Mr. Lamb ton's hounds are particularly steady and handy, to a degree not often witnessed.

I consider Durham altogether a very sporting county. The farmers ride good horses, the greater part of which they breed themselves, beginning the cross with the Cleveland-bay mare. There was one part of their rural economy which I particularly admired; and that was, I never saw a real cart horse in the principality of Durham. They make use of, for all purposes of husbandry, what we call the strong nag horse, so much quicker in his step, and altogether more useful than the heavy-legged, slow-moving, carthorse that we are doomed to employ in the South, and to which I have no hesitation in saying the ruin of many hundred small farmers is to be traced. It may scarcely be believed, but such is the prejudice of carters and wagoners in my part of the world, in favour of these long-tailed, heavylegged brutes, that they will wantonly mal-treat a horse of the nag kind, if put into their master's stables to work with the others. I was given to understand, that had I visited Durham some years back, when wheat sold for better prices, I should have seen more well-mounted yeomanry than at the present day, the times having taken the hunting out of some of them.

The eastern side, that is, from

the Tees to the Wear, and so on to the sea shore, is the best part of the Sedgefield country to ride over. Here is a good deal of old grass; the fields from ten to fifty acres in extent; and although the surface of the land appears indifferent, yet being upon a limestone subsoil, with the benefit of a humid atmosphere from sea breezes, a pretty good scent is often the result. I could perceive there is a large tract of this sort of land, and, as I understood, well planted with whin coverts; but the most likely country to ensure a run is the southern side, bounded by the Tees, and extending towards Piercebridge, in Lord Darlington's Hunt. Here, although the inclosures are smaller, and the fences stronger, yet the land is greatly superior, and consequently more to be depended upon for a scent. It was this side of the country that afforded us our capital day's sport.

There are sporting peculiarities in almost all counties I have been in. In the one I live in, they call a couple and half, or three hounds, a "harl" of hounds; and in Durham the farmers say, hounds "call" or "give mouth," when they challenge, or throw their tongue to a scent. When analyzed, however, there will appear but little difference in all such terms.

Wednesday, 13th.-I quitted Sedgefield, and I should ill deserve the treatment I received there, if I did not say I quitted it with regret. The heart of man has been compared to iron; it is hard, and of firm resistance when cold; but, warmed as mine had been by the flattering reception I had met with

from that description of men with whom it has been my delight to live-it becomes malleable, and capable of very lasting impressions. Were I to live a thousand years more, I should never forget the morning and the evening of the 12th of December 1826, but have noted it in my book as one the Dies Festi of my life. Indeed, had the God of good humour and fellowship looked in upon us at midnight, he must have put down his thyrsus, and drawn a chair to our table, for he would have despaired of dropping upon a more happy party than ourselves. That fox-hunting, however, is one of the balsams of life, I have never yet doubted since I knew what fox-hunting was, and d-n the man who attempts to destroy such a noble and manly recreation!

Having mentioned Captain Dundas as one of the conspicuous performers-until the last mile, when nature said "enough"-in our fine run from Foxyhill, and he being also so popular a character in the Sedgefield Hunt, I must devote half a page to his history, and I flatter myself the reader will not consider the time misemployed.

The Honorable George Dundas, brother to the present Noble Lord of that name, resides at Upleatham, in Yorkshire, amidst that host of friends which honest John Burrell inquired after so kindly, and represents the Orkneys in our Senate. He belongs to that profession of which England is so proud, and looks as if he had "weathered the storm." Оп ове occasion his own ship was blown up, and he had the ill luck to see