Without the most distant intent of endeavouring to depreciate the noble, exhilarating, delightful, and universally admitted excellence of FOX-HUNTING, (of which, by the bye, no adequate description can issue from the pen,) such few remarks may be made, as will display the sport of STAG-HUNTING in a different point of view to that in which the writer just mentioned has been pleased to place the picture; and probably rescue it from any little stigma of _disgrace_, or _inferiority_, which his promulgated opinion may have stamped upon the canvass. There is positively no instance in which the philosophic decision of SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY ("much may be said on both sides") could have been more strictly applicable, or more truly verified, than upon the present occasion. The candid, judicious and experienced sportsman will readily admit, that each retains its attractions too powerful to resist, as well as some inconveniencies impossible to remove: these, however, are reconcileable to the modification of those whose motives induce them to engage in either.
Previous to the recital of a chase with the STAG-HOUNDS, a few preparatory and comparative remarks are due to the observations already quoted from the justly popular work of MR. DANIEL. That there are but "few establishments" of the kind is certainly true, and for a most substantial reason; if they were numerous, the question would instantly present itself, from _whence_ are they to be supplied with GAME? The idea of "the KING'S giving the preference to FOX-HUNTING, if he had once seen a fox well _found_, and _killed_ handsomely," is an entire new thought; and affords immediate mental reference to the degradation of MAJESTIC DIGNITY, should it ever be found making its _dreary way_ through the _bushy brambles_ of a BEECHEN WOOD two or three miles in length, following the chase by the reverberating sounds of distant holloas! but without the _sight_ or _sound_ of a single hound. This is a constantly occurring trait in FOX-HUNTING, constituting no small drawback on its boasted _perfection_.
Whichever kind of chase is pursued, the ultimatum of enjoyment is much the same; horses, hounds, air, exercise, health, society, and exhilaration, constitute the aggregate: and TIME, which, to the opulent and independent, seems of _trifling_ value, is to the scientific inquisitant, or professional practitioner, neither more nor less than a LIFE ESTATE, no part of which should be _wasted_ or squandered away. The former class, in general, are industriously engaged in _killing_ time: the latter, who know and feel its worth, are as constantly employed in its preservation. The loss of time in the enjoyment of the two chases, is nearly or full _half_ between the one and the other: this is a circumstance, however, not likely to attract the _serious_ attention of the gentleman who has thus attacked the "_pomp_ and _parade_" of hunting the STAG; for as a clerical character, he had, of course, all the week upon his hands, being _particularly_ engaged only on A SUNDAY. To one of this description, who has most of his time to _kill_, and very little to employ, a long and dreary day through the gloomy coverts of a dirty country, without a _single challenge_, or one consolatory _chop_ of drag, must prove a scene of the most enchanting enjoyment; and in the very zenith of _exultation_, it must be acknowledged by professed and _energetic_ FOX-HUNTERS, that riding thirty or forty miles in wet and dirt, (replete with alternate hope, suspense, and expectation,) to enjoy the supreme happiness of repeated disappointments, terminating with a _blank day_, is equal, if not superior, to a STAG HUNT of even the first description.