Htmting Lo7^e. 463 



hunt and found a fox at half after ten, " being first plagued 

 with the dogs running hogs," followed on his drag for some 

 time, then ran him hard for an hour, when there came a 

 fault ; but when four dogs which had been thrown out 

 rejoined the pack they put the fox up afresh, and after 

 fifty minutes' run killed him in an open field, " every Rider 

 & every Dog being present at the Death." With his 

 usual alternations between days like this, and days of ill- 

 luck, he hunted steadily every season until his term of 

 private life again drew to a close and he was called to the 

 headship of the nation he had so largely helped to found. 



In a certain kind of fox-hunting lore there is much 

 reference to a Warwickshire squire who, when the Parlia- 

 mentary and Royalist armies were forming for the battle 

 at Edgehill, was discovered between the hostile lines, 

 unmovedly drawing the covers for a fox. Now, this placid 

 sportsman should by rights have been slain offhand by 

 the first trooper who reached him, whether Cavalier or 

 Roundhead. He had mistaken means for ends, he had 

 confounded the healthful play which should fit a man for 

 needful work with the work itself ; and mistakes of this 

 kind are sometimes criminal. Hardy sports of the field 

 o£fer the best possible training for war ; but they become 

 contemptible when indulged in while the nation is at 

 death-grips with her enemies. 



It was not in Washinofton's strong nature to make such 

 an error. Nor yet, on the other hand, was he likely to 

 undervalue either the pleasure, or the real worth of out- 

 door sports. The qualities of heart, mind, and body, 

 which made him delight in the hunting-field, and which 



