l luck would have it, a fox was found in
the morning with his leg broken, instead of a plant-eating rabbit. The
gardener took Reynard to the doctor, when he exclaimed, "Why did you not
call me up in the night, that I might have set the leg?" Better late
than never: the surgeon set the leg; the fox recovered, and was killed
in due form, after a capital run.

FOX-HUNTING.

(_From the "Noctes Ambrosianae," April 1826._[114])

_North._ It seems fox-hunting, too, is cruel.

_Shepherd._ To wham? Is't cruel to dowgs, to feed fifty or sixty o' them
on crackers and ither sorts o' food, in a kennel like a Christian house,
wi' a clear burn flowin' through 't, and to gie them, twice a-week or
aftener, during the season, a brattlin rin o' thretty miles after a fox?
Is that cruelty to dowgs?

_North._ But the fox, James?

_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to horses, to
buy a hundred o' them for ae hunt, rarely for less than a hundred pounds
each, and aften for five hundred--to feed them on five or sax feeds o'
corn _per diem_--and to gie them skins as sleek as satin--and to gar
them nicher (_neigh_) wi' fu'ness o' bluid, sae that every vein in their
bodies starts like sinnies (_sinews_)--and to gallop them like deevils
in a hurricane, up hill and doun brae, and loup or soom canals and
rivers, and flee ower hedges, and dikes, and palings, like birds, and
drive crashin' through woods, like elephants or rhinoceroses--a' the
while every coorser flingin' fire-flaughts (_flakes_) frae his een, and
whitening the sweat o' speed wi' the foam o' fury--I say, ca' you that
cruelty to horses, when the hunt charge with all their chivalry, and
plain, mountain, or forest are shook by the quadrupedal thunder?

_North._ But the fox, James?

_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is 't cruel to
men to inspirit wi' a rampagin happiness fivescore o' the flower o'
England or Scotland's youth, a' wi' caps and red coats, and whups in
their hauns--a troop o' lauchin, tearin', tallyhoin' "wild and wayward
humorists," as the doctor ca'd them the tither Sunday?

_North._ I like the expression, James.

_Shepherd._ So do I, or I would not have quoted it. But it's just as
applicable to a set o' outrageous ministers, eatin' and drinkin', and
guffawin' at a Presbytery denner.

_North._ But the fox, James?

_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to the lambs,
and leverets, and geese, and turkeys, and dyuck