as, though widely different from, la danse. They are fine fellows, with all the courage and quickness of the lion in them; still a cross with the bull-dog will be advantageous to them, while, as we are a trading nation, a large importation of their urbanity of manner will in time do us much good.. "Tout cela viendra ;” and I trust the time will also come when we shall hear of My Lord with his dozen hunters going to his friend Le Marquis on a visit during the hunting season.

A little work that has lately appeared on the subject of the description of horse now in use in our cavalry, tends to the inferring that "what we are doing now," and indeed what we have been long doing, in such matters, has been, and is, wrong. The gallant officer, the author of this book, is so far better qualified than I to judge of this, that even if I differed in opinion with him, I certainly should not attempt to dispute his; but, as regards the breed of our light cavalry horses, I consider his observations perfectly correct. I only base my ideas on what I know to be the powers of horses in general, under certain weight and exposed to certain hardships and casualities.

Those who have flattered me by reading what I have written are quite aware that I have ever advocated the using of horses as highly bred as we could get them, provided we got sufficient strength for the purpose to which we put them. I suspect the author alluded to does not object, or mean to object, to high breeding, but as being conducive to producing an animal too light for military purposes.

We will suppose the ass to be able (and it is said he is) to carry a greater load, in proportion to his own specific gravity, than can a horse: this in no way shows he is adequate to a weight the horse can carry. It is something like this with high breeding. We know that thoroughbred horses of good symmetry are vastly stronger than low-bred ones of the same or even somewhat larger size. This, however, only goes so far as where the attributes of the thorough-bred constitute his strength, These attributes are wind, speed, and game or bottom. If we wanted a horse to stand under five-and-thirty stone weight, a thick or even brokenwinded dray-horse would probably do so better than Haco; but make it twenty, and require the dray-horse with that weight to get into quick motion, Haco would beat him, though under such enormous weight. We see light, nay, spindle-limbed thorough-breds carry a weight far beyond what we should suppose they could, four miles across country, in a steeple-chase. This only lasts, on an average, say from twelve to fourteen minutes. The same horse would be dreadfully distressed to bear a dragoon, fully accoutred, on his back for eight or nine hours. The closer and more compactly-made horse, though only quite half-bred, would do it better. The speed, wind, and game of the thorough-bred are not called into play in the troop horse; for wind and game are only properly tried when speed and distance are required. Gameness and wind will not avail much where the back and loins are under a weight they are incompetent to sustain. If troops were wanted to charge four miles under even twelve stone, at a greater pace than the enemy, mount them, by all means, on strong thorough-bred horses; but where the charge is only a very few hundred yards, under, on an average, of perhaps sixteen stone, I should look for far greater strength; for a horse must be slow indeed if not equal to the usual pace of the fastest charge; and I think it would be found that in a charge of a couple of hundred yards

at top speed there would not be any very great difference between the time of the Blues or Lancers; for the speed of large, strong horses is often surprising in very short distances.

I think I remember to have somewhere said that I quite believe thorough-bred horses "would draw one of our once eight-horse road waggons better and far faster than waggon-horses." I have no doubt they would; but then we must have twelve instead of eight, for in such case the bodily weight of the large animals then used did half the work. The pace averaged three miles an hour; make that pace six, and the twelve thorough-breds would be at Newbury by the time the old geewho's got to Maidenhead Thicket.

Fond as I am of the thorough-bred, I hope it will be understood I do not mean the mere things we daily see in our streets. Even with hounds, a weedy, racing-looking animal always carries about him the appearance of having been bought for twenty pounds-and quite enough for such animals.

I am no advocate for the usual specimen of thorough-breds in harness they have a poor, and what I can only call a comfortless look about them, and produce in me a feeling something similar to what I should experience should I see a lady in full dress and white satin slippers paddling along a dirty and wet pavement. Give me four something the cut of Sir Hercules, Plenipo, Bran, or Ratcatcher; I should glory in a team of such; and something of the kind is always to be got, even at a moderate price-say £100, for I have had many-but then it must have been proved beyond doubt that such horses could not race, at least, not so as to pay expenses. Mendicant, we will say, could, and at one time would have cost a large sum; but, suppose a man had got her, she would have looked a mere wretch in harness. She could go over the turf, but even by the cover side would have looked a haggard, inferior animal. I have had some of the best and most delightful horses I ever possessed for harness that were quite thorough-bred: but they were muscular, and a comfortable-looking sort; and perhaps, nay, most probably, the very symmetry that was their recommendation to me was the very circumstance that had rendered them good for nothing as

racers.

The subject has been again brought forward of trying English against Eastern-bred horses. The Pacha, to do him justice, seems to wish the thing tried in the true and fair spirit of a sportsman. If half-a-dozen picked English and Eastern horses were pitted against each other on a description of ground of a fair galloping sort, and each jockey had positive orders not to uselessly or severely punish his horse, the proof might take place without any very censurable suffering to the animals engaged in it; but if it is to be--which I quite foresee it will be, if tried the actual butchering of two good animals to try which may be made by whip and spur to stagger home first, I shall do what I never did before-blush for my countrymen, and, in such case, the prostituted name of sportsmen.

438

MEMOIRS OF SPORTING IN FRANCE.

BY ACTEON.

CHAP. I.

A HUNTING PARTY IN THE MORVAN.

"Now let us all make a promise that we will meet again within a week or so, to spend ten days at least together."

A shout of acclamation, which was equivalent to a general consent, burst from the whole party.

"Now then, that a reunion is decided upon," added the speaker who had just made the proposition," let us settle at once where we are to meet."

"We might go into Champagne," said the Count de Baussancourt, whose property was situated between Bar-sur-Aube and Troyes.

Why not stay in Burgundy?" replied the Marquis de F, who at that time possessed a Château in the neighbourhood of Châlons-surSaône.

"All the whole country you have mentioned is not half so good as the Morvan!" shouted out at once MM. de Vitry, de Pracontal, de la Ferté, and a host of others, all being inhabitants of the little province we have just named.

"We are awfully like the Chamber of Deputies, gentlemen; for each seems to speak only for himself. Well! that the resemblance shall be complete, let us put it to the vote at once.

The author of that proposition, M. Jules Perret, had a great wish to go into the Morvan, and he also knew that a good many of the party were of the same opinion; thus, in proposing what he did, he appeared to be perfectly disinterested in the matter.

The Morvan carried it by a great majority; and consequently it was determined that on the 10th of November all the party should meet at Fours, which is a little village situated on the post road from Luzy to Nivers, in the very heart of the Morvan.

This decision having been once adopted, the satisfaction appeared general, and the party pledged each other in a toast of "Success to our future reunion.

All that I am about to relate happened in 1834, the day after All Saints' Day, at the Château de Montjeu, belonging to the Count de Talleyrand, where we had just met to celebrate the Feast of St. Hubert, by killing two or three fallow-deer. This Château of Montjeu is a lovely place, and formerly belonged to the house of Guise, and descended through the female line to a Mademoiselle de Guise, who married the Duke, afterwards Marshal de Richelieu. But I will describe more fully all the history and beauties of his château in another place, at some future time, and go on at once with the thread of my original discourse. "Le Morvan" is a little province, formerly one of the dependencies of Nivernais, and now divided between the departments of the Nièvre, the Yonne, the Côte-d'Or, and the Saône-et-Loire, each of which has taken a slice of it. It is a mountainous and undulating country,

interspersed with enormous forests, roaring torrents, melancholy-looking sheets of water; surrounded by lofty hills clothed with heather, lonely valleys, with foundries blazing in its gorges, with old châteaux, now abandoned, and looking like the deserted eyrie of the eagle. Here is found marble, granite, and iron; and it is also celebrated for its breed of cattle, and of a race of small-sized horses, which are as supple as redhot iron, and as hardy as polished steel; moreover, the peasants who inhabit this region are as cunning as savages. English travellers, who have traversed this part of the world, pronounce it to be very like Scotland. I saw myself, in 1833, the outlaws who had come from the Vendée looking at it in a most melancholy manner, as they exclaimed : "Oh! how like it is to our dear native Brittany!" But, however, let it be like what it will, it is a charming spot for sportsmen and poetsthat is to say, for those who think too much, and those who I fear never think half enough.

Some slight delay, of which I now forget exactly the cause, obliged the Count de Baussancourt, the Baron de St. Pierre, and myself, who ought to have been at the rendezvous on the first day, to put off our departure for four-and-twenty hours, so that we were unable to assist" at the first day's hunting. This was a subject of great regret ; for whilst we were changing horses at the post-house, one stage before we entered Fours, we had the mortification to hear a commercial traveller recounting the fabulous history of the first chase. If one could have believed him to be speaking the truth, the party had found a wild boar weighing five hundred pounds, which had killed forty of the hounds before they could despatch him, and that he at last received his death-blow from the couteau de chasse of the Prince Talleyrand himself.

"How can this be?" we exclaimed; "is this ancient diplomatist still able to take the field a-hunting ?"

"To be sure he can," replied the commercial traveller, with the utmost sang froid, "and there is no one to be found in the whole neighbourhood who can damer le pion with him; I assure you, gentlemen, that when I left Fours, I saw no one of the hunting party who sat so upright on his horse as he did he certainly is a wonderful man of his age!"

:

We looked at him certainly in astonishment, all three of us-Baussancourt, St. Pierre, and myself. The fact was, that the Prince Talleyrand had been invited to meet the party, and that the commercial traveller had drawn upon his imagination for the rest of his story.

We were exceedingly anxious to learn all the facts of this extraordinary account, and forward we went on our journey, telling the postillion to make the best of his way.

Although it was in the month of November, the evening was truly magnificent; a heavy dew, which seemed to freeze as it fell upon the meadows, lighted as they were by the full-moon, glittered as if the surface had been strewed with a net-work of fine pearls. The mountains between which the road serpentiued loomed sombrely in the distance, beneath the azure vault of heaven, and inspired us with melancholy, which was, however, occasionally broken in upon by some sudden allusion to our joyous prospects. At one time our carriage rattled along over

* A term used at the game of drafts.

the broken stones, which had been placed there for the purpose of repairing the road; at another time it glided silently over a thick carpet of fallen leaves, wet and decaying on the ground, the first victims to the blast of the destructive east winds of autumn. Sometimes we passed along the road for half-an-hour without meeting with a single soul; then we suddenly found ourselves in a village resonant with those rustic sounds which bring with them the remembrance of our earliest and happiest days-the tinkling of the sheep-bells; the happy chorus of a bevy of young girls, as they were seated round a fire; the noisy rumbling of a farmer's cart, as it jolted over the newly-broken stones; the neighing of a horse in an enclosure; or the heavy step of the farmer along the village foot-path. And then the interesting objects which presented themselves to us!-the glittering sparks from the furnaces, as they mounted up and vanished; the fires of the dry weeds, as they blazed in the midst of the fields, or on the sides of the hills; and as we passed along the quarters of the forest through which our road lay, we could not help taking a longing look at the inviting alleys in the wood, and wondering if the chase would bring us to revisit the same spots on the following day.

Just as we were ascending a small hill, which had almost brought to a walk our stout little Morvandean post-horses, the joyous sound of a hunting-horn caught our car: we responded to it by a "rallying view halloo," whilst our postillion kept time by cracking his whip, and we entered Fours amidst the welcoming acclamations of our impatient companions, who had all arrived the evening before, and were half intoxicated with the good fortune of their first day's hunting; for they had really killed a boar, only it weighed some two hundred pounds less than the commercial traveller had "laid it at," and that he had killed only three hounds instead of forty; however, it was pretty well for a start. Scarcely had we descended from our carriage, than we were surrounded, welcomed, embraced, questioned, scolded, &c. Why did not you come yesterday? You have missed a famous day's sport. Perhaps it will rain to-morrow. There are more wild boars than ever. That poor old Galaor has been killed. You are excessively lucky; you've the nicest place to sleep at in the world. Upon that last point I had felt perfectly at ease, for it was my old friend Jules Perret who was charged to look out for our lodgings, and it was a most extraordinary circumstance that, as we rode through the village, I remarked to my companions, as I pointed out the very house, "I hope that devil of a fellow Perret will get us beds there." And true enough it was; for in this very house, where he had established himself, we found three more excellent chambers, with beds as soft as down, good warm curtains, and chimneys that never smoked as long as the wind was in the right quarter.

Here, then, we found ourselves, and soon made Perret recount to us the adventures of the first day's hunting. In exchange we retailed to him the fabulous history of the "commercial gent.' We soon after went to bed, for we were not only fatigued by our journey, but hoped that by reposing in the arms of Morpheus, we should shorten the suspense which made us long so much for daylight.

On the next morning, the wide and only street in the country village of Fours presented a most animated appearance. The chasseurs, all dressed in a uniform composed of a hunting-coat of black rough cloth, made so as to show a very "flare-up" waistcoat, met in the salle-à