Fox-hunting seems to be possessed of a charm, or magical inspiration, within itself, that even the most serious, the most cynical, and the most singular, cannot, with all the firmness of their resolves, summon resolution to withstand. It is the very kind of rapturous gratification to which every effort of the pen becomes inadequate in its attempts at description; it must be seen to be understood; it must be FELT to be ENJOYED. A FOX-HUNTING ESTABLISHMENT consists, in general, of what it has done for the last century past, at least with those PACKS most celebrated for the EMINENCE and OPULENCE of their OWNERS. The principal and second HUNTSMAN, the first and second WHIPPER-IN, three horses kept for each of the first, and two each for both the last; from TWENTY-FIVE to THIRTY-FIVE couple of HOUNDS, terriers, helpers, earth-stoppers, dog-feeders, and a long list of et ceteras, too numerous for minute description. Those who wish to acquire a systematic knowledge of the SPORT, (so far as it can be obtained from THEORY,) will do well to peruse attentively "Mr. Beckford's Thoughts upon Hunting, in a Series of familiar Letters to a Friend."—They are so truly the effusions of sound judgment, and so replete with the useful remarks of an experienced sportsman, that there is no room for any thing NEW or ADDITIONAL to be introduced upon the subject.
FREE WARREN
.—A FREE WARREN is a term totally distinct from FOREST, CHACE, PARK, MANOR, or WARREN; it is a franchise derived originally from the Crown; and the person having a grant of free warren over certain lands, possesses a SOLE RIGHT of pursuing, taking, and killing GAME of every kind within its limits; although there may be no one acre of land his own property through the whole district where he is possessed of this right. There are instances where a variety of circumstances render manorial rights and privileges so complex, and seemingly indefinite, as to produce litigation without personal enmity, but merely that the right shall be LEGALLY ascertained. It appears that where MANOR LANDS are situate in, and surrounded by, a FREE WARREN, the owner of such lands may kill game within his own manor, but he cannot introduce even a qualified person to KILL GAME there also, without the consent of the owner or possessor of the privilege of FREE WARREN over the whole; if so, the person introduced killing game, will be liable to an action for trespass, which action will lie.
A curious cause came on to be tried before a jury at the summer assizes of the present year, 1802, held at Abingdon, for the county of Berks, wherein John Westbrook, Gent. of the parish of Bray, (situate in Windsor Forest,) was PLAINTIFF, and a Game-keeper of his Majesty's the DEFENDANT. The action was brought to try the RIGHT of the DEFENDANT, as one of his Majesty's keepers, to KILL GAME within the enclosed grounds of the PLAINTIFF, situate in, and surrounded by, the wastes, commons, and within the boundaries of the said FOREST. When, without adverting to the laws relative to forests only, (with which the question was totally unconnected,) the Court held it good, that the King, possessing a FREE WARREN over the WHOLE, possessed likewise the privilege of appointing a KEEPER to kill game upon any, and within every, part of the said FREE WARREN, without the least exception as to enclosed lands, the property of others; when the jury instantly found for the defendant, by which the right is fully confirmed.
This being a question of privilege, tried on the part of an individual against the prerogative of the Crown, it might be fairly considered conclusive upon the subject of FREE WARREN; but as it cannot be too clearly understood, for the prevention of ill neighbourhood, and expensive litigation, another decision is subjoined, which took place about the same time, though in a different county.
On the 12th of July, in the same year, a writ of inquiry was executed before the Under Sheriff at Hertford, in an action wherein Henry Browne, of North Mimms, Esq. was PLAINTIFF, and Thomas Greenwood, the Younger, DEFENDANT. The action was brought for a trespass committed by the DEFENDANT, in shooting game within the FREE WARREN belonging to the PLAINTIFF, who is Lord of the Manor of North Mimms, and entitled to free warren through the whole of the Manor. It appeared, that the land on which the trespass was committed, and the game killed, by the DEFENDANT, was not, in point of fact, the land of the PLAINTIFF, but, on the contrary, belonged to Justinian Casamajor, Esq. However, as it was proved to be within the Manor of North Mimms, and the right of free warren extending over the whole of the Manor, the Jury, after considering the circumstances of the case, and the defendant's conduct, who persisted in shooting after being warned to the contrary, gave a verdict of TEN POUNDS with costs.
FRET
.—The disorder which (in the country) is called by this name, is the FLATULENT CHOLIC, and occasioned from a retention of wind, and a rarefaction of air in the intestinal canal. It is immediately discoverable by the fulness and extreme tension of the carcase, the agonizing pain of the horse, the rumbling of the confined air, the partial and very trifling expulsions of wind, the laboured respiration, frequent groaning, suddenly laying down, and as hastily rising, constant looking back to the flank on one side or the other, as if soliciting relief from those who surround him. The great and leading object is, to promote a plentiful EXPULSION of WIND: this is in general followed by excrementitious discharges, by which ease is obtained, and the disorder near at an end. Warm, spicy, aromatic CARMINATIVES, blended with ANODYNES, are the medicines best adapted to this species of CHOLIC, and to which it speedily submits; more particularly if plenty of ASSISTANTS are at hand to bestow the necessary portion of flank rubbing, (and belly wisping,) to an unceasing perseverance in which, success is equally to be depended upon with the administration of MEDICINE; as in most cases little is to be expected from one without collateral aid from the other.
FROG
,—in HORSES, is the centrical soft kind of horny substance at the bottom of the foot, spreading wide from the heel, having a cleft in the middle, and terminating in a point toward the toe. To the internal parts the lower extremity of the TENDONS are attached, and the FROG is the basis by which their elasticity is supported, and from whence is derived the deceptive reasoning, that the FROG must indispensibly (in action) touch the ground. The frog is subject to a defect, called the FRUSH, or THRUSH, and this, when become virulent, is termed running thrush: it sometimes arises from internal heat, by standing too much upon foul hot litter, (particularly in the livery stables of the Metropolis,) as well as from a STAGNANT state of the FLUIDS in the extremities, for want of proper exercise, leg rubbing, and keeping the feet clean.