Do

easily and soon done, and a man floored for life before he may be said to have entered it. But let me not be misunderstood. not thus early take up the trade of a valetudinarian-nothing so bad; but be up to anything, and ready for everything in which there is really good fun and enjoyment.

To a certain and great extent a young man must do what others do; but do not be donkey enough to be led by the nose by other worthless stupid asses, to do things in which there is neither fun nor meaning, and only a devil-me-care bad style, and merely because others do so: such as smoking, for the sake of doing something, and puffing and blowing a cloud of smoke and muddling your brain; or drinking, beyond what good humour and social intercourse inspire; or worst of all, gambling, the lowest of the low of all propensities and abominations, and the most heartless and the most detestable that any young fellow can allow to engross his thoughts or corrupt his taste; and I may also truly add, General idleness. I shall begin with this last, General idleness. The late Emperor of Russia placed his great dependence for the destruction of the allied armies on the manoeuvres of Generals January and February.

As surely is General Idleness the great source of ruin to all young men, as it is the beginning of all mischief.

Full of energy and life, they must be doing something, for good or evil; and if not well employed, inevitably they will be ill employed. Some young ones may smile when I add, did they but know the real fun and charm of literature, when the young mind has expanded under its balmy influence, they would not so readily withhold from their lips the rich cup, full of such good liquor, that is presented to them during their college life, but quaff it freely and cheerily; and such life and spirit would it not give? Do not misunderstand me, young gentleman I do not desire to see you a book-worm, or a humdrum, prosy and prosaic, didactic and pedantic stupid ass, but a clever, intelligent, well-informed fellow, as fond of your hunting, riding, driving, frolic and fun as a young man can be; but be no less fond of your studies, if you like me so to put it, at your leisure hours. But let study, sport, and amusement-and there is no such amusement for young ones as those of sport-all go hand in hand, and forward on together. You will be a better scholar for your sport, and a better sportsman for your studies. You must not, you ought not, you cannot at any period of your life be absorbed entirely, or occupied in either alone, all the year or all of any day in it; your knowledge and fondness for the one will make you better able to follow the other, and eminent in both.

I well remember, many years ago, meeting the present Prime Minister of England, Lord Palmerston, constantly out with hounds, and he has been a sportsman, and at all in the ring, during his life. Had he not been so, I do not believe that he would have now been England's Premier at the age of seventy, one of the heartiest, most agreeable, and most popular men alive. Indeed, I am quite confident that the unwearied attention which it is well known Lord Palmerston has given to his official duties for so many years would have knocked him up long ago, but for his recreations on horseback and as a sportsman. How invaluable it is now to him, as a good horseman, to be able to take

his constitutional trot round the park, to breathe the fresh air and brush the cobwebs which political cares and their thousand botherations keep heaping and gathering on his brow, and thus shaking everything right, within and without, mentally and bodily! I am also confident that had the late Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen been foxhunters and sportsmen and horsemen, they would both have been much more cheery fellows, and better Prime Ministers, and more readily have carried their country and their countrymen with them.

The former, assuredly one of the ablest men and the greatest statesmen of this century, would as assuredly not only have saved his life, poor fellow-unhappily too early lost to his country-had he been a horseman, but also much of that coldness and reservedness of manner and disposition, which lost him so many friends, and by forbidding approach gained him so few, would, I am thoroughly satisfied, have been shaken out of him, had he only been a foxhunter and a sportsman. The Duke of Wellington, undeniably the greatest and the best man of the century, was both.

Had Lord Aberdeen, who is said to be a much overrated man, been a foxhunter, his deficiences would have been earlier discovered, and he never placed in a situation for which he proved utterly unfit, though I have no doubt an upright and a well meaning man. The late Lord Althorpe was the most straightforward Minister of our day, and one of the best statesmen, and no less good sportsman. Popular and agreeable, he carried the House of Commons with him, by his singlemindedness and integrity of purpose. I fearlessly assert that Lord Althorpe would never have been one-half so great or so good a man, but for his fondness and indulgence in country pursuits and sports, and his combining literature and business with sport and pleasure, and a tenfold happier and better man than had he attended exclusively to either.

How it would have improved such men as Gladstone and D'Israeli, and even my Lord Derby, had they only been foxhunters! The former would not have been half such a refiner and splitter of straws, or he would have been let into and left in the bottom of many a deep ditch, as the song says, "all covered up with mud," and half the field riding over him and the other half passing him by. And let him take heed that this will not be his lot in political life. I acknowledge myself an immense admirer of his talents and powers, and consider him better qualified than any man, next to Lord Clarendon, to be the future Prime Minister of England. But he must not bother and mystify himself about trifles and distinctions without differences; but, in the language of fox-hunters, which it would have been well for him had he only known and followed, let him get on, and forward-and try to kill his fox like a man, instead of hanging fire, and trying back, as if the spirit moved him like a Quaker-to think of and to try to do always what is impossible.

But I have got too wide, amongst Prime Ministers-past, present, and to be. Let us hark back to our young ones at College. I shall have them all on my back when I boldly denounce Smoking as the greatest curse to the youngsters of England. Let Dutch and Germans smoke on the banks of their canals, and in their hot weather in summer and the frost and snows of winter, which rivet them to their seats and listless lazy

amusements more than half the year. But in England we have no need of the Indian weed. Away with it!

Let a young fellow be up and stirring, and out in the air. There are tenfold more invigorating effects to be produced by it than all the momentary stimulus which the fumes of tobacco can give, and no alloy, and no shaky hands, or unstrung nerves-the certain fate of nine men out of ten in England who lead an English life, and borrow in addition the Dutch, German, and Eastern customs. I say advisedly, in addition; because-mark it well, all ye young ones who are victims of the present fashion of but yesterday of smoking in England, that you have borrowed what neither suits, nor is required by an English climate or English habits, your pursuits or constitutions; in fact, is foreign and alien to them all, and when mixed up with English indulgences, &c., and, added to them, to which the smoking of other countries is an utter stranger, is neither more nor less than poison and destruction to the rising generation of England.

We are all creatures of habit; and wants and cravings are only produced by indulgence.

Little does the young man know, when he begins to imitate his elder friend, and puts the first cigar to his mouth, how he has sealed his doom, and withered his after-life.

Three of my young friends have been seized with paralytic attacks in consequence, and had to give up smoking, or their lives were gone, as their health had already.

But, as the more you attempt to persuade young ones to desist from a habit, the more firmly you confirm them in it, I shall say no more about smoking, but simply warn and earnestly recommend every man, of every age, to give it up at once and for ever; and to young ones, who have not taken to it-in Heaven's name avoid it, and you will be healthier and happier men.

Now, as to Drinking, my advice to all young ones is plainly-drink like a gentleman, but not like a low brute. It may be that I may have the joke turned against me, as was once done to one who claimed perfection, by eating nothing but vegetables and drinking nothing but water, when a wag floored him, by saying that he was sorry to find "that he drank like a fish and eat like a beast."

My advice, as has been my practice, is-drink jollily, cheerily, and freely when in company with other good fellows, and when a little good liquor, deny it who can, cements friendships, and promotes good humour, good fellowship, and good everything, especially after a good day with hounds, and amongst friends who have shared it together; but when in the company of yourself alone, never touch one drop, but eat a light dinner, and be done with it, and ready for any and everything-writing, reading, study, or as circumstances and fancy dictate; also contrive to have at least two or three quiet non-eating and drinking days every week of your life; you will be tenfold a better man, live for ever, and enjoy life a hundredfold more. Also, never, as a youngster, drink a drop of spirits of any kind, but stick to good wine, and when you find it bad, drink as little as possible; also never through life drink spirits or anything else but a tumbler of cold water before going to bed, and, if you will, when you get up in the morning. As I have heard many a shrewd old-fellow-before-his-time declare that the drinking of

spirits-and-water at night was the cause of it, and one and all who ever did it recommend none to follow suit.

I must add, too, I beseech my young friends not to become fond of eating for the sake of eating; it is one of the vices of the present day, and is nearly as bad as drinking, without the cheeriness of it, as it makes a man selfish, and neither more nor less than a great hog. Further, it mars all the other enjoyments of life, stupifies the mind, and sows the seeds of a train of incalculable ills. As a young fellow with plenty of means at my command, I followed the system I have above recommended-of, when alone, simply having a couple of mutton chops and as many potatoes, with a thundering appetite all the time, and either no wine, or at most a single glass of sherry-and-water, and up from dinner and away, and alive to any other pursuit ; whereas, had I made a business of my dinner, or a god of my stomach, which too many do, I should have been stupid and unfit for anything; and thence the benefit when, mixing with other fellows, I used to go the whole animal, and not be a bit the worse for it; and, as a celebrated medical man once said to me many years ago, "Thus, you are the only man who can do these things with impunity."

I also early found that I was not only unwilling to get up next morning, but was not half so good a man all the next day, or half so happy or so cheerful a one, when I had eaten and drunk more than enough; also it is the greatest possible mistake to suppose that a man requires or is the better for a huge hunting or shooting breakfast.* Nothing worse for him. Two small cups of coffee and cream, and good dry brown bread and butter, or dry toast and an egg, if he fancy it, is enough for a Hercules, and will make him more of one, and much fitter to jump on his hack and go through his day's work, than if he crammed himself with no end of meat and good things, all to be jumbled in his unfortunate stomach as he goes a thousand miles an hour to cover. Had he half an hour to spare before he starts, which no man ever has, it would be all the better for him, even with a moderate breakfast; but as he has not, his only salvation is in a moderate and plain repast. Good coffee, too, acts like a dram, and an innoxious one, on the spirits, and he requires no cigars after it. Further, no man can hunt six days a week without fatigue beyond what is good for him, or takes severe exercise on the Scotch Moors, or elsewhere, if he eats or drinks too much. No excess in hard work, as every man must have found it. Therefore, young men, in one word, eat and drink only what is required, and no drinking is required; and never take up the trade of either as a profession or amusement.

I feel, however, that I may have dosed my young friends almost enough to make them dozy, especially if they have had an overdose of dinner; and as I mentioned in one of my early letters, the very true saying of an old friend of mine, "That experience was of no use to a man, as he only obtained it when he was about done, and could not

* A hunter or hack might as well be crammed with a huge quantity of hay or corn on hunting mornings, or hounds; instead of, as we all know, the latter getting nothing, and the others only one small feed of oats, the first thing in the morninglong before they start. I was much struck with the practice of an old farm steward of mine: he always gave his horses a double allowance of oats on Sundays, the days of rest, it being well known that digestion goes on much quicker when an animal (man inclusive) is at rest, and not in exercise or great exertion, immediately after food,

apply it, and that young ones would not believe anything till they had gone through the like process themselves, and been damaged accordingly," though I do hope, as I sincerely mean, something better may happen to some good young ones from the perusal of these Wrinkles. I shall hold hard, and give myself and them breathing time before I enter upon that greatest of curses and of human vices, and the fearful cause of so much misery, desolation, and destruction to the health, the peace, and the happiness of man and of womankind-Gambling.

THE QUORN HUN T.

The hopes that were indulged of procuring an immediate successor to the late lamented Master of the Quorn have not been realized. There were, we believe, several noblemen and gentlemen who would not have been indisposed to take the Mastership, had they not already been in possession of hunting countries which they could not abandon in the middle of the season without much disappointment to the members of their respective hunts. It cannot, however, be disguised that the splendid manner in which the late Sir Richard's large fortune enabled him to carry on this first of hunting establishments was not without its effect in increasing the difficulty of finding a meet successor. Few men, however ample their means, are willing, as Sir Richard was, to sacrifice £10,000 a-year even for the honour of being Master of the Quorn. Respect for the memory of the late master required that there should be a temporary and decent cessation of that sport in which he was wont to share. That over, the lovers of the chase began to bestir themselves; for Leicestershire, without fox-hunting in December, hardly seemed to be Leicestershire. Accordingly, the hereditary commissary, secretary, and director, Mr. Cradock, applied himself to the task of supplying the hiatus VALDE deflendus. A private meeting of the committee, at Quorndon House, the residence of E. B. Farnham, Esq., M.P., resulted in a resolution to call a meeting of the members of the hunt, and all persons interested in its maintenance. This was held at the Bell Hotel, Leicester, on the 10th of December, when the following noblemen and gentlemen attended :-The Earl of Wilton, Lord Berners, Lord Algernon St. Maur, Lord Gardner, Sir A. G. Hazelrigge, Bart., Sir G. H. Beaumont, Bart., the Hon. Mr. Petre, W. W. Tailby, Esq. (High Sheriff of the County), E. B. Farnham, Esq., M.P., J. B. Story, Esq., Edward Dawson, Esq., Henry Greene, Esq., W. A. Pochin, Esq., Atkinson, Esq., S. W. Clowes, Esq., Sheldon Cradock, Esq., Thos. Cradock, Esq., Capt. Fowke, A. L. Phillipps, jun., Esq., S. W. Pare, Esq., Messrs. Henson, Miller, A. Griffiths, &c., &c.

LORD BERNERS was requested to occupy the chair. His Lordship stated that in consequence of the lamented death of Sir Richard Sutton,