Page images
PDF
EPUB

O, NEAL lays senseless on the sod,
He youthful victor bounds, a god,

Into his chariot gay;

And now the beauteous and the brave On high their hats and kerchiefs wave, And cheer his homeward way.

Lo, thus, on Ludlou's flowery field,
Rome's bravest chief was taught to yield
As classic stories tell-

Fled thence Estorius of yore,
To pine on Severn's eastern shore-
And so, of late-DOBELL.

Roman and man of Medway too,
Have sunk, O Neal, as well as you,

Beyond Sabrina's tide.

[blocks in formation]

"This powerful bird breeds in the recesses of the sub-alpine country," observes Mr. Macgregor, in his account of America, "which skirts the rocky mountains, and is seldom seen farther to the eastward. It is held by the aborigines of America, as it is by almost every other people, to be an emblem of might and courage; and the young Indian warrior glories in his eagle plume as the most honorable ornament with which he can adorn himself. Its feathers are attached to the calumets, or smoking-pipes, used by the Indians in the celebration of their solemn festivals, which has obtained for it the name of the calumet eagle. Indeed, so highly are these ornaments prized, that a warrior will often exchange a valuable horse for the tail feathers of a single eagle. The strength of vision of this bird must almost exceed conception, for it can discover its prey, and pounce upon it from a height at which it is itself, with its expanded wings, scarcely visible to the human eye. When looking for its prey, it sails in large circles, with its tail spread out, but with little motion of its wings; and it often soars aloft in a spiral manner, its gyrations becoming gradually less and less perceptible, until it dwindles to a mere speck, and is at length entirely lost to the view. A story is current on the plains of the Saskatchewan, of a half-bred Indian, who was vaunting his prowess before a band of his countrymen, and wishing to impress them with a belief in his supernatural powers. In the midst of his harangue, an eagle was observed suspended, as it were, in the air, directly over his head, upon which, pointing aloft with his dagger, which glistened brightly in the sun, he called upon the royal bird to come down. To his own amazement, no less than to the consternation of the surrounding Indians, the eagle seemed to obey the charm, for, instantly shooting down with the velocity of an arrow, it impaled itself on the point of his weapon.

"We saw the yerfalcon often during our journeys over the barren grounds, where its habitual prey is the ptarmigan, but where it also destroys plover, ducks, and geese. In

the middle of June, 1821, a pair of these birds attacked me as 1 was climbing in the vicinity of their nest, which was built on a lofty precipice on the borders of Point Lake, in latitude 6510. They flew in circles, uttering loud and harsh screams, and alternately stooping with such velocity, that their motion through the air produced a loud rushing noise; they stuck their claws within an inch or two of my head. I endeavoured, by keeping the barrel of my gun close to my cheek, and suddenly elevating its muzzle when they were in the act of striking, to ascertain whether they had the power of instantaneously changing the direction of their rapid course, and found that they invariably rose above the obstacle with the quickness of thought, showing equal acuteness of vision and power of motion. Although their flight was much more rapid, they bore considerable resemblance to the snowy owl. At the period at which I saw them, the ground was still partially clothed with snow, and the lakes covered with ice; but the yerfalcon, like the strix nyctea of the same districts, is well calculated, from the whiteness of its plumage, for traversing a snowy waste, without alarming the birds on which it preys. As the ptarmigans partially migrate southwards in the winter, some of the yerfalcons follow them, and when one pounces down upon a flock, the ptarmigans endeavour to save themselves by diving instantly into the loose snow, and making their way beneath it to a considerable distance."

HUNTING THE BEAR.

After resting for about half an hour (says Mr Lloyd, in his Field Sports of the North of Europe), we again resumed the search for the bears, which we continued until near three o'clock, and until it was beginning to get dusk. At this time I was to the right of the line, which was proceeding in a westerly direction; when in the distance to the northward, and in a part of the forest we had not yet beaten, I heard my old dog, Paijas, giving tongue; this he did in such a manner that I had more than a suspicion he had found what we had so long been in search of. I now lost not a moment, but, leaving the people, ran as fast as the broken nature of the ground would permit, towards the spot where the dog was challenging, which might be at one hundred and fifty or two hundred paces distance. This was in a rather thick part of the forest, and in a clump of pines, around the foot of which, though at some paces distantfor he probably remembered the rough treatment he had received upon a former occasion

Paijas still kept furiously baying. Though the dog had found the bears, I did not, at the first moment, observe the entrance to their den, which was an excavation in the face of a little rising, situated between, and partly formed by the roots of the surrounding trees. But on discovering it, I at once sprung on to the top of the hillock; and, though at that

time immediately over the den, the bears still remained quiet. On my hallooing, they felt so little inclination to leave their quarters, that the old bear simply contented herself with partially projecting her snout. At this, from its being the only point exposed to my view, I levelled my rifle, which was then pointed in a perpendicular direction. On reflection, however, I refrained from firing, as I considered that, though I might have smashed the fore part of her head to pieces, there was little chance of my killing her outright. Instead, therefore, of firing whilst in that situation, I stepped (and it certainly was not "the most prudent step" a man ever took), with my left foot in advance, directly over her, to the opposite side of the hole, when, wheeling about on the instant, and having then a full view of her head, from which the muzzle of my gun was hardly two feet distant, and my left foot still less, for it was partially in the entrance to the den itself, I sent a bullet through her skull. I now called loudly to the people, none of whom, nor even the other dogs, which had been questing to some birds in another part of the forest, had as yet come up-for I was rather apprehensive the cubs might attempt to make their escape. To prevent this I stood for a while over the den, in readiness to give them a warm reception with the butt-end of my rifle. But three or four minutes elapsed before Jan Finne, who was to the left of our line, Svensson, and the peasants, made their appearance : for, strange to say, though Paijas had been in Jan Finne's possession for several years, he either did not recognize his challenge, or he had not a suspicion it was to the bears; and in consequence neither he nor the people moved from where I had left them, until they heard my shot. My apprehensions as to the cubs attempting to escape were, however, groundless, for they still continued quiet; at first, indeed, we could see nothing of them, for the old bear, as is usual with those animals when they have young, was lying in the front of the den, and we therefore almost began to think we had hit upon a bear distinct from those of which we were in search. But on the people introducing a stake, and moving the old bear a little to the side, one of the cubs, and subsequently a second, and a third exhibited themselves, all of which I despatched either with my own or with Jan Finne's rifle. The work of death being at length completed, we drew the bears out of their den. This was, however, of such small dimensions, that it was the admiration of us all how they could have stowed themselves away in it. Bears usually prepare their winter quarters during the autumnal months, and sometimes previously to taking possession of them; but the animals of which I am now speaking, having been disturbed from their original lair at a time when the ground was hard frozen, and when it was, of course, much more difficult to imbed themselves in the earth, probably accounted

[blocks in formation]

One of the modes employed consists in two persons driving in a sledge, at night, through the woods, which are known to be infested with ferocious animals of that class, well armed with short weapons as well as ready-loaded guns. The wolf is a very gourmand in pork flesh, the younger the better; the huntsmen, therefore, take care to have in the sledge with them a sucking pig, the ears of which they pull from time to time; when the squeaks of the animal not unusually call forth the wished for wild beast, which falls ravenously on what it considers the noisy prey, but which is nothing more than a large bundle of straw dragging along the ground from behind the sledge, somewhat fashioned like a pig. While in this act the musquetry of the sledgers is discharged at him, and there is generally an end of the wolf. But it sometimes happens that when a she-wolf has been thus disturbed and cheated, and that the hunters have missed their aim, the animal has made a dart at the inmates of the sledge, or followed for some time the rapid course of the carriage, howling most dismally, thus reversing the order of the chase until a more lucky shot has put an end to the pursuit. A THOROUGH-BRED DOG HATES A BAD SHOT.

A gentleman requested the loan of a pointer dog from a friend, and was informed that the dog would behave well so long as he could kill his birds, but if he frequently missed them he would run home and leave them. The dog was sent, and the following day was fixed for trial; but, unfortunately, his new master was a remarkably bad shot. Bird after bird rose and was fired at, but still pursued its flight untouched by the leaden showers that fell around it, till at last the pointer became careless, and often missed his game; but, as if seemingly willing to give one chance more to his luckless master, he made a dead stand at a furn bush, with his nose pointed downwards, the fore foot bent, and his tail straight and steady. In this masterly position he remained firm till the sportsman was close to his tail, with both barrels cocked; then moving steadily forward for a few paces, he at last stood still near a bunch of heather, the tail expressing the anxiety of the mind by moving regularly backward and forward, when out sprang an old black cock. Bang, bang, went both barrels, but alas! the proud bird of the heath still soared in the air unhurt. The patience of the dog was now quite exhausted, and, instead of crouching at the feet of his master till he reloaded, he turned boldly round, laced his tail close between his legs, gave one howl, long and loud, and off he set, and stopped not till within sight of the kennel door.

Printed for Thomas Tegg, Cheapside, by John Haddon, Castle Street, Finsbury.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][graphic][subsumed]

THE CORINTHIANS,

At MELTON MOWBRAY, starting to join the Hunt:

Can Europe or the World produce,
Alike for ORNAMENT and USE,
Such Models of stout, active, trim men?
And quite a History for the Pen?
With specimens of Order, dress,
Health, comfort-INBRED cleanliness
As here displayed-the brightest Sun
Lingering seems proud to shine upon !

I'm for Life and a Curricle!

66

"I believe you!" said my friend, PAUL PRY, the other morning, who had just dropped in" to the regions below, of the crib wherein I domicile, in order to ascend a few steps towards my 6 upper story,' to have a bit of

That's your sort!-GOLDFINCH.

[ocr errors][merged small]

:

in the genteel phrase of the day—“ an attic !" but the plain sort of folks, or rather, the intelligible creatures, would have given it its proper name, a GARRET! the usual high abode of Scribblers!" But no matter," observed Pry, "whether it be a Cloud capt Tower;' or a 'Garret!' if I could pun, I should call it one of the flights of Genius, and say that your place of residence is one of the highest things in Society. But, are you not for Life and a Curricle?" "Most certainly I am," was my reply but how? Better, it is said, to be born fortunate than rich. True! The above proverb may suit very well the lucky folks of this world. But, in answer to that old adage-I think it is much better at all times to be born rich than poor! However, as you and I are amongst the proverbs-a kind of argufying the topic!' I will proceed with one or two of them, in order to come at something near the truth on the subject. It might be asked how many persons are born under a thruppenny planet, never to become worth a groat? in spite of all their great talents, wit, skill, ability, and speculations-and, by way of a wind-up to their exertions, end in a WHEREAS ! But then we are told that Riches do not always bring happiness with them :-Indeed, I must admit that there is a "bit of good truth" attached to the last remark; but as a set-off against it—'a FAT sorrow,' in the opinion of most of my friends, is much better than a lean one. I am quite aware that there are golden drops attached to grief

[ocr errors]

for the demise of a rich relative CORINTHIAN; as well as the real tears of sorrow for a substantial, never-to-be-forgotten loss of a sincere friend. And granted that RICHES do not always bring happiness with them, yet it cannot be denied that in obtaining real happiness a great deal must always depend on the conduct and mind of the individual in the possession of riches; Shakspeare tells us that—

Poor, and content, is rich--and rich enough!

66

It is true that Gold-" here my friend, Paul Pry, observed Pierce, my dear boy, you are preaching! Surely you do not want a pulpit just yet! You have not had a call! I tell you that I am for Life and a Curricle; and if I had one at my door I would roar out to the echo that would answer again-" That's your sort!" and my Paulina vows that she would have the best that could be got in the Acre if I could stand it; or, in other words, if the coachmaker would stand it. Do not riches enable the Corinthian to get over the ground with pleasure to himself and advantage to society? Does he not possess the Key to every thing that he fancies ?-A fig for your moralizing, philosophy-or call it what you will. I would be a Corinthian to the end of the chapter, if I could-but the truth is, I was not lucky enough to have been born a Swell, although I made my way into the world like the great duke of Buckingham, without a shirt to my back; therefore, my dear boy,

drop all your proverbs, metaphors, your this, THAT, and the other-it is all gammon. I beg pardon if I have not used a stylish phrase, but to me it conveys a very important meaning, and, I flatter myself, perfectly intelligible, from the Countess to Billingsgate Fan, therefore I again say, drop it, and talk like yourself." "My worthy, communicative friend," said I, " accept my best thanks: perhaps you are right after all, and, without any further prelude, I have only to remark-Melton Mowbray is in view, and behold ;—

The lad of mettle! off to the Chase,
Quickly girds his belt on;

A "tip-top SWELL," with ruddy face-
True PICTURE of a MELTON.

His horse a picture-and his hounds-
The Fox-soon after her;

With courage high, he knows no bounds,
A true "OUT-AND-OUTER!”

"Have at him there," holloas the Squire ;
The Gorse all in a rout-

The hounds on scent-full of desire
To turn sly Reynard out!

The sport being o'er-dinner time-
With joy he fills his glass,

And toasting all, in Life, that's prime ;
First-his faithful lass!

Then, thus it is-his Time doth fly!
Hunting, racing, shooting!
At ev'ry thing, he has a shy'-

On Sporting Points-mooting.

With deference to the "Editor of the Quarterly Review," we think there was not the slightest necessity for any apology, or the display of something like squeamishness on his part, for his review on the "Remarks on the Condition of Hunters, the choice of Horses and their Management, &c., by Nimrod," who observes ;" Under such circumstances, we hope the readers of our journal will not accuse us of any unpardonable trespass, if we now and then permit ourselves to be seduced into a little discussion on a class of subjects with which, hitherto, we have very rarely interfered." The Sporting World, at the present moment, constitutes a great feature in Society, and its movements, in general, are read with

deep interest and pleasure: such being our

well-known ideas upon the subject-we offer no apology to the subscribers to the "BOOK OF SPORTS, for making an extract from the following well-written article; and we also feel assured that our numerous readers will not entertain an opinion that we have inserted one line of it too much:

"And so, without further preface, let us for once sympathize with what even Milton calls an unreproved pleasure :

'Listening how the hounds and horn,
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,
From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill.'

In various old writers-the Mayster of the game, for instance, we find lively pictures of the ancient English chase, which in many respects, no doubt, was of a more noble and manly nature than that of the present day.

*

The wolf, the bear, the boar, were among the favorite beasts of 'venery;' and none can doubt that the habit of pursuing such animals, independently of giving vigour to the frame, and strength to the constitution, must have nourished that martial ardour and fearless intrepidity, which, when exerted in the field of battle, generally won the day for our gallant ancestors. The hart, the stag, the hind, the roe-buck, and the hare, are likewise constantly mentioned, as is also the wild or mertin cat, now nearly extinct; but the fox does not appear to have been included in the list of the Anglo-Norman sportsman. The first public notice of this now much esteemed animal, occurs in the reign of Richard II., which unfortunate monarch gives permission, by charter, to the Abbot of Peterborough, to hunt the fox. In Twice's Treatise on the Craft of Hunting,' Reynard is thus classed :And for to sette young Hunterys in the way To venery, I cast me fyrst to go:

Of which 4 bestes be, that is to say, The Hare, the Herte, the Wulf, and, the Wild Boar; But there ben other bestes, 5 of the châse; The Buck the first, the seconde is the Do; The For the third, which hath hard grace, The ferthe the Martyn, and the last the Roe. It is indeed, quite apparent, that until at most a hundred and fifty years ago, the fox was considered an inferior animal of the chase, the stag, buck, and even hare, ranking before him. Previously to this period, he was generally taken in nets or hays, set on the outside of his earth: when he was hunted, it was among rocks and crags, or woods inaccessible to horsemen such a scene, in short, or nearly so as we have drawn to the life in Dandie Dinmont's primitive chasse in Guy Mannering. If the reader will turn to the author of Hudibras's essay, entitled, 'Of the Bumpkin, or Country Squire,' he will find a great deal about the hare, but not one word of the fox. What a revolution had occurred before Squire Western sat for his picture! About half-way between these pieces, appeared Somerville's poem of The Chase,' in which fox-hunting is treated of with less of detail, and much less of enthusiasm, than either stag-hunting or hare-hunting.

[ocr errors]

:

It is difficult to determine when the first regularly appointed pack of fox-hounds appeared among us. Dan Chaucer gives us the thing in embryo :—

Aha, the fox! and after him they ran;
And eke with staves many another man.
Ran Call our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerlond,
And Malkin with her distaff in her hond.

* There are sufficient documents to show that the wolf was hunted in England so lately as the fourteenth century; and, in the fifteenth, it was so common in Scotland, that the legislature, for the purpose of destroying the breed, enjoined every Baron to hunt this animal four times within the year.-See the Black Acts, James I., 6, 115; James II., 6, 98. In the year 1281, a commission was granted by Edward I., to Peter Corbet, to hunt and destroy all the wolves he could discover in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, Salop, and Stafford.-Rymer's Foedera, vol. ii. p. 168.

Ran cow and calf, and eke the veray hogges, So fered were for berking of the dogges, And shouting of the men and women eke, They ronnen so, hem thought her hertes brake.' At the next stage, no doubt, neighbouring farmers kept one or two hounds each, and, on stated days, met for the purpose of destroying a fox that had been doing damage in their poultry yards. By-and-bye, a few couples of strong hounds seem to have been kept by small country Esquires, or Yeomen, who could afford the expense, and they joined packs. Such were called trencher hounds, implying that they ran loose about the house, and were not confined in kennel. Of their breed, it would be difficult to speak at this distance of time; but it is conjectured that they resembled the large broken haired harriers, now to be met with in the mountainous parts of Wales, which, on good scenting days, are nearly a match for any thing. Slow and gradual must have been the transition to the present elaborate system; but we must waive the minutia of sporting antiquarianship.

In no one instance has the modern varied from the ancient system of hunting more than in the hour of meeting in the morning. Our forefathers threw off the pack so soon as they could distinguish a stile from a gate, or, in other words, so soon as they could see to ride to the hounds. Then it was that the hare was hunted to her form by the trail, and the fox to his kennel by the drag. Slow as this system would now be deemed, it was a grand treat to the real sportsman. What, in the language of the chase, is called 'the tender-nosed hound,' had an opportunity of displaying himself to the inexpressible delight of his master, and to the field, that is, to the sportsmen who joined in the diversion, the pleasures of the day were enhanced by the moments of anticipation produced by the drag. As the scent grew warmer, the certainty of finding was confirmed, the music of the pack increased, and the game being up, away went the hounds" in a crash." Both trail and drag are at present but little thought of; hounds merely draw over ground most likely to hold the game they are in quest of, and thus, in a great measure, rely upon chance for coming across it; for, if a challenge be heard, it can only be inferred that a fox has been on foot in the night, the scent being seldom sufficient to enable the hound to carry it up to his kennel. Advantages, however, as far as sport is concerned, attend the present hour of meeting in the field. Independently of the misery of riding many miles in the dark, which sportsmen of the early part of the last century were obliged to do, the game, when it is now aroused, is in a better state to encounter the great speed of modern hounds, having had time to digest the food which it has partaken of in the night, previously to its being stirred. But it is only since the great increase of hares and foxes, that the aid of the trail and drag

« EelmineJätka »