The Noble Science Volume 2; A Few General Ideas on Fox-Hunting (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...direct or indirect affinity, unless in connection with the fact that metals of all kinds are almost impervious to the effect of dew. Can it be that they have too much brass? Or, after all, is this metal the predominant material? And is the composition of the article I am now remarking on--a mixture of Mr Smith's own composition? 1 May not this have been some local term incorporated by Mr Smith into his glossary? It is, too, quite a common mistake of printers to use the spelling metal for mettle.--Ed. "Nimrod" addressed a letter to the Editor of Bell's Life complaining bitterly of the manner in which his writings have been distorted in consequence of his not having the opportunity of correcting the errors of the press. It is possible that this glossary may have been subjected to a similar disadvantage. I did not hesitate, upon the prima facie evidence of the robbery and murder committed upon the body of the word Tally-ho to give a verdict against some poor devil of a printer; and, well knowing that these functionaries are not always particular to a T, I had no doubt that the word cover, which occurs so frequently (a word which I had never seen in sporting sense, unless with regard to a certain description of horses), was intended to be read covert. This idea is borne out by the Glossary, which, instead of Dr Johnson's definition of the word cover, "anything that is laid over another," describes a cover as " any wood, etc., which will hold a fox." 1 It is merely doubling the extension of such an allowance to lead us to the supposition that, amidst the dross of the printing-house, this metal may have been confounded with the mettle which may occasion hounds, when very fresh, to "fly for a short distance on a wrong scent.&quo...